ISSN: 2311-3278
Zikri Arslan
A chemical vapor generation (CVG) method is developed for determination of cadmium (Cd) by ICP-MS. Titanium (III) and titanium (IV) were utilized for the first time as novel additives to enhance generation of volatile Cd species, and their synergistic effects were investigated for thiourea, L-cysteine and potassium cyanide (KCN) with different mineral acids. Both Ti (III) and Ti (IV) provided the highest enhancement with KCN. The improvement with thiourea was marginal (ca. 2-fold), while L-cysteine boosted signals slightly only with Ti (III) in H2 SO4 . Optimum CVG conditions were 4% HCl + 0.03 M Ti(III) + 0.16 M KCN and 2% HNO3 + 0.03 M Ti(IV) + 0.16 M KCN. A 3% (m/v) NaBH4 solution was adequate for successful vapor generation. Under these conditions, sensitivity was enhanced 40-fold with Ti(III) and 35-fold with Ti(IV), that are the highest enhancement factors achieved so far in Cd vapor generation.