| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1239571 | Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy | 2016 | 4 Pages |
•Pyrolysis–chemical vapor generation was extended to the determination of cadmium.•Thiourea enhanced the generation efficiency and eliminated the interference of copper.•Cadmium in water samples can be very accurately determined.•Efficiency and mechanisms of the formation of volatile cadmium were discussed.
A pyrolysis-vapor generation procedure to determine cadmium by atomic fluorescence spectrometry has been established. Under fast pyrolysis, cadmium ion can be reduced to volatile cadmium species by sodium formate. The presence of thiourea enhanced the efficiency of cadmium vapor generation and eliminated the interference of copper. The possible mechanism of vapor generation of cadmium was discussed. The optimization of the parameters for pyrolysis–chemical vapor generation, including pyrolysis temperature, amount of sodium formate, concentration of hydrochloric acid, and carrier argon flow rate were carried out. Under the optimized conditions, the absolute and concentration detection limits were 0.38 ng and 2.2 ng ml− 1, respectively, assuming that 0.17 ml of sample was injected. The generation efficiency of was 28–37%. The method was successfully applied to determine trace amounts of cadmium in two certified reference materials of Environmental Water (GSB07-1185-2000 and GSBZ 50009-88). The results were in good agreement with the certified reference values.
