Polarographic determination of cyanide as nickelcyano complex in blood plasma after selective extraction in a methylene blue impregnated polyethylene column

A method for the determination of cyanide in blood plasma by differential pulse polarography (DPP) is described without a drastic acidification of the sample. Cyanide was determined as tetracyanonickelate(II)-anion complex after a microwave-acid assisted cleanup and a selective complex extraction in a polyethylene methylene blue (PE-MB) impregnated column. The cyano complex was eluted from the column with water/acetonitrile and determined by pulse-polarography at -380 mV (Ag/AgCl). The linear range of calibration was obtained from 1.2 to 9.6 mu g of cyanide with r = 0.99 and RSD = 9% of 1.2. mu g of cyanide. A detection limit of 40 mu g L-1 was calculated and the recoveries of cyanide from spiked samples were about 80%. This method was compared with the classical pyridine-pyrazolone method.