Titanium determination in human blood plasma by ICP-OES, longitudinally, and transversally heated Zeeman ETAAS

A method was developed to determine the amount of titanium in human blood plasma by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Zeeman electro-thermal atomic absorbance spectrometry (ETAAS) following dilution of the plasma samples. An echelle based ICP-OES system shows excellent results in the determination of titanium in blood plasma if a 1 + 99 dilution of the samples with water and an ultrasonic nebulizer is used. No matrix interference could be observed. Furthermore, a comparison of a longitudinally heated Zeeman ETAAS with a transversally heated instrument showed that with the transversally heated tube the typical peak tailing, evoked by titanium as a refractory element, can be minimized. Suitable results in the determination of titanium could be obtained with both AAS systems. However; the use of complex temperature-time programs is necessary. The transversally heated furnace suffers from memory effects of the plasma samples. As a result, the ICP-OES is better suited than the transversally heated Zeeman furnace technique, owing to lack of formation of carbides and less matrix effects.