ONLINE PRECONCENTRATION AND DETERMINATION OF TRACE-ELEMENTS BY FLOW-INJECTION INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY

A study was made of the capabilities of iminodiacetic acid/ethylcellulose (IDAEC) to serve as the chelating resin for preconcentrating trace elements together with a computer-assisted on-line flow injection analysis-inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry technique. The system was tested with a few analytes of particular clinical and environmental importance (Cd, Co, Cu and Pb) in matrices such as water, sea water and urine. The performance of IDAEC resin was compared with that of carboxymethylated polyethyleneimine-polymethylenepolyphenylene isocyanate (CPPI) and Chelex 100 with regard to enrichment factor, analytical throughput and recovery. With several obvious advantages over the batch procedure, the on-line mode improved the detection power by one to two orders of magnitude and allowed twelve samples per hour to be treated. IDAEC appears to be the most convenient resin in terms of efficiency and long-term performance.