Determination of cadmium, lead, copper and zinc in the acetic acid extract of glazed ceramic surfaces by anodic stripping voltammetric method

An anodic stripping voltammetric method has been developed for determination of cadmium, lead, copper and zinc in acetic acid extract of glazed ceramic surfaces. An aliquot of 4% (v/v) acetic acid solution was kept in a ceramic ware for 24 h in the dark, then 10 mL of the extracted solution was placed in a voltammetric cell. The solution was purged with oxygen free nitrogen gas for 3 min before deposition of the metals was carried out by applying a constant potential of −1.20 V versus Ag/AgCl to the hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) for 45 s. A square wave waveform was scanned from −1.20 to 0.15 V and a voltammogram was recorded. A standard addition procedure was used for quantification. Detection limits of 0.25, 0.07, 2.7 and 0.5 μg L−1 for cadmium, lead copper and zinc, respectively, were obtained. Relative standard deviations for 11 replicate determinations of 100 μg L−1 each of all the metals were in the range of 2.8–3.6%. Percentage recoveries obtained by spiking 50 μg L−1 of each metal to the sample solution were in the range of 105–113%. The method was successfully applied to ceramic wares producing in Lampang province of Thailand. It was found that the contents of cadmium, lead, copper and zinc released from the samples were in the range of <0.01–0.16, 0.02–0.45, <0.14 and 0.28–10.36 μg dm−2, respectively, which are lower than the regulated values of the Thai industrial standard. The proposed method is simpler, more convenient and more sensitive than the standard method based on FAAS.