A semiautomatic system for soluble lead and copper monitoring in atmospheric deposition by coupling of passive elemental fractionation sampling and voltammetric measurement on screen-printed gold electrodes

We propose here the concept of semiautomatic measurement of soluble copper and lead in atmospheric deposition by the coupling of filtrating-bulk passive sampling by an atmospheric elemental fractionation sampler (AEFS) designed for fractionation of soluble and insoluble elemental species, and square wave anodic stripping voltammetric detection on screen printed electrodes. The voltammetric parameters were optimized to provide a reliable method for Pb(II) and Cu(II) monitoring with detection limits in the low ng mL− 1 range. The method was validated by analyzing ambient water certified reference materials with good agreement between measured and certified values. The monitoring system was tested during a 1 month experimental campaign in a suburban area and proved useful to monitor copper changes in the atmospheric deposition. Lead was also measurable after fortification since its levels were under the detection limit of the voltammetric method. The results obtained were contrasted by a lab based standard ICP-MS method with good correlation. Our results are promising about the possibility of routine field use of unattended voltammetric measurements of trace element monitoring in atmospheric deposition.