Metal Analysis

Abstract

There are different techniques that provide precise measurement of the concentration of the different elements in the sample. For this research, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for Mn, Zn, Pb, U, Hg, Ag, Sn, Cu, Cr, Co, As and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, Pb, Cu, U, and Ni were used to determine the concentration of metals in the sample because it has superior detection limit. The samples were in the liquid form and diluted before proceeding for experiments. The liquid sample first dissociated into ions with the help of argon plasma source. The instrument was calibrated time to time like, after every ten samples with the standards. Both the instruments have shown very low the limits of detection (LOD). The total concentration of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and nitrogen (N) were measured and discussed in the sample collected from the Tamar estuary.