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Determination of Lead, Cadmium, Copper, and Nickel in the Tonghui River of Beijing, China, by Cloud Point Extraction–High Resolution Continuum Source Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry
Author(s) -
Ren Ting,
Zhao LiJiao,
Sun BoSi,
Zhong RuGang
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq2013.04.0140
Subject(s) - graphite furnace atomic absorption , cadmium , cloud point , environmental chemistry , detection limit , atomic absorption spectroscopy , beijing , nickel , surface water , heavy metals , chemistry , copper , mercury (programming language) , contamination , environmental science , analytical chemistry (journal) , extraction (chemistry) , environmental engineering , china , chromatography , ecology , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , political science , law , computer science , biology , programming language
Heavy metal contamination of water has become an important problem in recent years. Most hazardous heavy metals exist in environmental water in trace or ultra‐trace amounts, which requires establishing highly sensitive analytical methods. In this research, quantitative analyses were performed using high‐resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry combined with cloud point extraction (CPE) to determine Pb, Cd, Cu, and Ni levels in environmental surface water. By optimizing the CPE conditions, the enrichment factors were 29 for Pb, Cd, and Cu and 25 for Ni. The limits of detection (LOD) were 0.080, 0.010, 0.035, and 0.014 μg L −1 for Pb, Cd, Cu, and Ni, respectively. The sensitivity of the method is comparable with those reported in previous investigations using various methods and improves outcome by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude compared with the LODs of the current national standard methods of China. Our method was used to determine Pb, Cd, Cu, and Ni in 55 water samples collected from the Tonghui River, which is the principal river in the urban area of Beijing, China. The results indicated that the distributions of the four heavy metals in the Tonghui River were related with the environments. The levels of Pb and Ni exhibit increasing trends along the river from upstream to downstream possibly due to the existence of some chemical factories in the downstream area. Lead, Cd, Cu, and Ni averaged 13.9, 0.8, 46.8, and 38.5%, respectively, of the total amount of the determined heavy metals. The levels of the four heavy metals conformed to the Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (Grade I) of China. This work provides a reliable quantitative method to determine trace‐amount heavy metals in water, which lays a foundation for establishing standards and regulations for environmental water protection.