Multicommutated Stepwise Injection Analysis as new approach for simultaneous determination of nickel (II), copper (II) and zinc (II) in wet aerosols

The performance of the suggested approach is demonstrated by the MCSWIA spectrophotometric determination of nickel (II), copper (II) and zinc (II) in wet aerosols. The first stage of analysis assumes the on-site sampling of air aerosols by using of fiberglass columns. The second stage assumes spectrophotometric determination of analytes using MCSWIA. The selective color-forming reagents such as dimethylglyoxime, picramin-epsilon and 8-quinolinazo-epsilon were chosen for the spectrophotometric determination of nickel (II), copper (II) and zinc (II), respectively. The appropriate experimental conditions for air sampling and automated MCSWIA spectrophotometric procedure were investigated. The absorbance of colored complex at the wavelengths of 465 nm, 550 nm and 560 nm for nickel (II), copper (II) and zinc (II), respectively, obeys the Beer's law in the range of 1-40 μg/m3 of nickel (II) and copper (II) and 10-100 μg/m3 of zinc (II). The LODs, calculated from a blank test based on 3 < sigma >, are 0.3 μg/m3 for nickel (II) and copper (II) and 3 μg/m3 for zinc (II).