Estudo da influência de modificadores químicos para a determinação de chumbo por GF AAS na presença de sulfatos

Abstract

Lead determination by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry may be affected by some interferences. Several authors have reported that lead determination may be affected in the presence of some salts (carbonates chloride, nitrate and sulphate). Sulphates have been highlighted as potential interferents in lead determination. Interferences as analytical signal suppression and high background signal may be observed, even at low sulphate concentration. The main goal of this work was to verify the interferences caused during lead atomization in the presence of CaSO4, Na2SO4, FeSO4 e (NH4)2SO4, and try to minimize the interferences using chemical modifiers. This work was developed using a lead reference solution (10 μgl-1). This solution was placed into graphite furnace (10 μl), an amount corresponding to 100 pg lead, in the presence of different amounts of sulphate. It was observed signal suppression and high background signals. However, interferences caused by Na2SO4, FeSO4 e (NH4)2SO4 were minimized by optimization of pyrolysis and atomization temperatures. On the other hand, interferences caused by CaSO4 (27 μg) produced suppression in the analytical signal (66%), and they were just corrected by the use of chemical modifiers. This suppression effect was corrected using 3 μg Pd, and background signal was negligible in the presence of 5 μg Pd. It was verified that organic modifiers (ascorbic, oxalic and citric acid) were also efficient as chemical modifiers to correct the interferences observed in the presence of this salt. At optimized conditions in the presence of CaSO4, lead was determined in plaster samples (CaSO4.2H2O). The lead amount in these samples was smaller than the limit of detection. It was necessary the use of spiked samples to verify the performance of the developed method. Analyte recovery in the presence of ascorbic acid at the optimized pyrolysis and atomization temperatures was close to 100%. In this way, the use of organic chemical modifiers, as ascorbic acid, may be considered a reliable an relatively inexpensive procedure (when compared to the use of Pd) for the minimization of the interferences caused by calcium sulfate for lead determination by GF AAS.