Graphite furnace-atomic absorption spectrophotometric determination of palladium in soil

Abstract

A new and sensitive procedure for the graphite furnace-atomic absorption spectrophotometric (GF-AAS) determination of Pd in soil at nanogram level is described. The method is based on prior separation and enrichment of the metal as Pd(II)-SnCl₃ ^–-N-butylacetamide (BAA) complex into 1-pentanol (PN) by solvent extraction method. The value of the molar absorptivity of the complex in three solvents, i.e. ethyl acetate, 1-pentanol, chloroform, lie in the range of (0.70–2.75) × 10⁴ L mol^–1 cm^–1 at λ_max 360–440 nm. The metal could be enriched into organic solvent, i.e. PN, up to 10-folds. The sensitivity (A = 0.0044) of the method in the term of the peak height was 0.5 ng Pd/mL of the aqueous solution at an enrichment factor (EF) of 5. Optimization of analytical variables during enrichment and GF-AAS determination of the metal are discussed. The method has been applied for the analysis of Pd to soil samples derived from roads and highways in Germany.