Determination of cadmium in wines using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with zeeman background correction

A graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry method with Zeeman background correction for the direct determination of cadmium in grape wines is described. Use of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, magnesium nitrate, and palladium nitrate as matrix modifiers was investigated. Palladium nitrate with 10% nitric acid was the most satisfactory matrix modifier. The methodological detection limit, calculated as 3 sigma/slope of the calibration curve, was 0.03 mu g/liter for cadmium in wine. The sensitivity, calculated as the characteristic mass, was 0.4 pg. The use of palladium nitrate as a matrix modifier also results in excellent reproducibility (<10% RSD) at such low levels. This method is readily applicable to the determination of cadmium in wines without any sample preparation. (C) 1997 Academic Press.