Photoacoustic spectrometric determination of palladium(II) in water by dithizone extraction and solid sample preparation

Abstract

A photoacoustic spectrometric (PAS) method has been developed for determining trace amounts of palladium(II) in water samples. This method is based on dithizone extraction of Pd^II and conversion of 500 µl of the organic extract into a thermally thin solid film sample 3.5 mm in diameter. The solid film samples are prepared by thermal evaporation of the solvent. Operating parameters were optimised with respect to the temperature of solvent evaporation, the delivery rate of the organic extractant and the height of the syringe needle above the sampling mirror. This PAS method offers a detection limit of 0.04 p.p.b. of Pd^II in 100-ml water samples, a linear dynamic range from 2 to 200 ng of Pd^II and a relative standard deviation of 3.2% at 100 ng of Pd^II.