Analytical Sciences

Effectiveness of Palladium-Sodium Azide Modifier for the Direct Determination of Urinary Cadmium by Graphite-Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Sibel SARACOGLU and Latif ELCI*

Erciyes University, Art and Science Faculty, Chemistry Department, 38039 Kayseri,Turkey

A combination of palladium and sodium azide is proposed as a mixed modifier for cadmium determination in urine by graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrometry using calibration against matrix-free standard solutions. It permits the use of a pretreatment temperature of 900 - 1000C and markedly reduces the background absorption caused by inorganic salt matrices. The urine was simply diluted 1+1 with the addition of 1% HCl, Pd and NaN₃. The recovery of cadmium obtained from urine was higher than 95%. The relative standard deviation at a cadmium level of 2.10 - 4.56 mg l^-1 was smaller than 4%. The detection limit (3s, n=20) is 0.16 mg l^-1 of cadmium. (Keywords: Cadmium, palladium-sodium azide modifier, urine, graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrometry)

J-STAGE: View this article in J-STAGE