Microwave-assisted UV-digestion procedure for the accurate determination of Pd in natural waters

A procedure was developed for the selective determination of Pd in environmental aquatic solutions. The method is based on a preliminary microwave-assisted UV-digestion for the degradation of dissolved organic material, and the subsequent determination of Pd using a recently presented enrichment procedure with ETAAS detection. Due to the simultaneous use of microwave and UV irradiation only extremely small quantities of hydrogen peroxide were necessary to yield a quantitative degradation of interfering organic ligands. Thus the on-line pre-concentration of Pd in the digested samples using the complexing agent N,N-diethyl-N′-benzoylthiourea was possible without any further sample pre-treatment. Using a sample volume of 1.57 ml for FI-ETAAS analysis a limit of detection of 15 ng l−1 was obtained for the combined procedure, with a relative standard deviation being not more than 4.9%. The method was applied to quantify the water-soluble fraction of Pd in urban road dust. Extractions with a rain sample of pH 5.9 revealed that an average of 2.2% (n = 8) of the total Pd present in urban road dust was water soluble.