Determination of heavy metals in milk by potentiometric stripping analysis using a home-made flow cell

A method is described for sensitive and reliable determination of trace concentrations of cadmium, lead and copper in real samples by stripping potentiometry with a home-made flow cell. The selection of the experimental conditions was made using experimental design methodology. The optimum conditions for the method include an acetic acid–acetate buffer mixture (pH 3.4) as supporting electrolyte, an electrolysis potential of −1.1 V and a flow rate of 3 ml min−1. The detection limits were 6.51 × 10−10 mol l−1 for cadmium, 4.60 × 10−10 mol l−1 for lead and 8.59 × 10−10 mol l−1 for copper, with an electrolysis time of 900 s. The relative standard deviations at this concentration level were 0.038, 0.086 and 0.095, respectively. In order to check the analytical accuracy, standard solutions have been used and recoveries close to 100% were obtained. The method was successfully applied to the determination of cadmium, lead and copper in powdered milk, using the method of standard additions.