Direct trace determination of lead in estuarine water using in situ preconcentration of lead hydride on Ir, Zr and W-coated graphite tubes Original Research Article

Methods for the direct trace determination of lead in sea water involving hydride generation, trapping and the atomization of the hydride generated in a graphite furnace has been developed. Different permanent coated graphite tubes: iridium, tungstate and zirconium coated graphite tubes were investigated for the in situ preconcentration of lead hydride. The results obtained were compared with the ones achieved by the conventional HG-AAS. Trapping on Ir-coated graphite tubes offers the best analytical performances, with detection limits of 60 ng l−1. The accuracy was studied using IAEA/W-4 and SLRS-2 reference materials, and the method was applied to several sea water samples. The number of samples analyzed in an hour was 40.