Determination of Cu, As, Hg and Pb in vegetable oils by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with palladium nanoparticles as modifier

The determination of Cu, As, Hg and Pb in vegetable oils by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ETV-ICP-MS) was investigated. The oils were injected in the form of emulsions containing 5% m/v vegetable oil, 1.5% v/v Triton X-100 and 50 μg mL−1 ascorbic acid. Palladium nanoparticles (Pd-NPs) were used as modifier. The interference of 40Ar35Cl+ at arsenic mass m/z 75 was reduced significantly using dynamic reaction cell (DRC). Standard addition and isotope dilution methods were used for the quantifications. The method reported has been applied to the determination of Cu, As, Hg and Pb in selected vegetable oil samples purchased from a local market. The analytical results obtained were in good agreement with those of digested samples analyzed by pneumatic nebulization ICP-MS with 95% confidence according to Student t-test (except for Cu). Precision between sample replicates was better than 10% with the ETV-ICP-MS method. The detection limits obtained from standard addition curves were 0.4, 0.5, 1.1 and 0.4 ng g−1 for Cu, As, Hg and Pb, respectively, in the original oil samples.