The determination of trace lead in drinking water by flow injection spectrophotometry

Lead is the non-essential trace element in the human body, and it has been confirmed that drinking water is one of the sources of lead in human body. In the research, based on the sensitive colour reaction of lead with I−–EV+–PVA, a simple, sensitive, accurate and portable method for the determination of trace lead in drinking waters was proposed. Chemicals and physicals had been optimized in detail. The apparent molar absorption coefficient was up to 7.4 × 105 mol L−1 cm−1. The developed method provided a linearity range over 5–80 μg L−1. The regression deviation was between 0.71% and 2.33%. The 3σ detection limit was 0.9 μg L−1. Close to the quantitation limit for the analyte the relative standard deviation was 1.10% (n = 10) at 40 μg L−1. The method developed here for analysis of lead yielded results that were comparable with those of the GFAAS.