Determination of heavy metals at sub-ppm levels in seawater and dialysis solutions by FAAS after tetrakis(pyridine)-nickel(II)bis(thiocyanate) coprecipitation.

A coprecipitation method has been developed for the determination of Cr(III), Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(II), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions in aqueous samples by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) with the combination of pyridine, nickel(II) as a carrier element and potassium thiocyanate as an auxiliary complexing agent. The obtained coprecipitates were dissolved with nitric acid and measured by FAAS. The coprecipitation conditions, such as the effect of the pH, amounts of nickel, pyridine and potassium thiocyanate, sample volume, and the standing time of the precipitate formation were examined in detail. It was found that the metal ions studied were quantitatively coprecipitated with tetrakis(pyridine)-nickel(II)bis(thiocyanate) precipitate (TP-Ni-BT) in the pH range of 9.0 - 10.5. The reliability of the results was evaluated by recovery tests, using synthetic seawater solutions spiked with the analyte metal ions. The obtained recoveries ranged from 96 to 101% for all of the metal ions investigated. The proposed method was validated by analyses of two certified reference materials (NIST SRM 2711 Montana soil and HPS Certified Waste Water Trace Metals Lot #D532205). It was also successfully applied to seawater and dialysis solution samples. The detection limits (n = 25, 3s) were in the range of 0.01-2.44 microg l(-1) for the studied elements and the relative standard deviations were < or =6%, which indicated that this method could fully satisfy the requirements for analysis of such samples as seawater and dialysis solution having high salt contents.