Issue 6, 1997

Slurry Sampling for Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Determination of Arsenic in Cigarette Tobaccos

Abstract

The development of a slurry sampling hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometric (HGAAS) method for the determination of arsenic in cigarette tobacco samples is described. The method is relatively simple and has been shown to give values of total arsenic close to those obtained using methods requiring total dissolution and decomposition of all vegetable matter before analysis. Pre-treatment of samples slurried in nitric acid by ultrasonication permitted the extraction of about 90% of the total arsenic from tobacco samples. Further improvement in the recovery efficiency (up to 93–94%) was accomplished by the use of an additional step of short microwave-accelerated treatment. L-Cysteine was used as a pre-reduction agent. The accuracy and precision of the slurry sampling HGAAS method were studied using the certified reference material (CRM) CTA-OTL-1 Oriental Tobacco Leaves. Under the optimum conditions, as little as 2.6 ng of arsenic can be detected. The relative standard deviation of the overall procedure was calculated to be below 7.6% at arsenic concentration levels of 0.5–0.9 mg kg - 1 and the analytical results obtained for the CRM agreed with the certified value. The main factors that influenced the reliability of the method were sample homogeneity, particle size and slurry concentration.

Article information

Article type
Paper

Analyst, 1997,122, 539-542

Slurry Sampling for Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Determination of Arsenic in Cigarette Tobaccos

J. Mierzwa, S. B. Adeloju and H. S. Dhindsa, Analyst, 1997, 122, 539 DOI: 10.1039/A608246G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements