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Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Determination of Arsenic and Antimony in Combustible Municipal Solid Waste.

Haynes-BW

Atomic Absorp Newsl 1978 17(3):49-52

10009698

This paper describes a method for the digestion of combustible municipal solid wastes (MSW) samples using magnesium nitrate as an ashing aid and nickel nitrate as a volatilization suppressent for the determination of arsenic and antimony by electrothermal atomic absorption. The magnesium nitrate and nickel nitrate are added prior to dry ashing of the samples at 450 deg to 500 deg c. The analysis of National Bureau of Standards (NBS) standard reference materials (SRM) by this method provided good agreement with certificate values for SRM 1633 coal fly ash, SRM 1632 coal, and SRM 1571 orchard leaves, and with values obtained by other laboratories. The relative standard deviation for SRM materials ranged from 3.5 to 11.4 percent. Replicate samples of combustible MSW were normally within 20 percent. This range of replicates was due mainly to the inhomogeneity of the combustible MSW samples and not to the analytical procedure. The sensitivity (0.0044 Absorbance) obtained by this method was 0.10 Ug/g for arsenic and 0.15 Ug/g for antimony, based on a 2-g sample of combustible MSW.

19780101

OP;

1978

OP 36-78

3

CPRC;

Atomic Absorp. Newsl., V. 17, No. 3, May-June 1978, PP. 49-52