1482
Anal. Chem. 1907, 5 9 , 1462-1466
Cadmium Determination in Biological Materials Using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Palladium Nitrate-Ammonium Nitrate Modifier Xuefeng Yin,’ Gerhard Schlemmer, and Bernhard Welz* Department of Applied Research, Bodenseewerk Perkin-Elmer & Co. GmbH, 0-7770 Ueberlingen, Federal Republic of Germany
A mixture of palladlum nitrate and ammonlum nitrate Is proposed as the modlfler for cadmlun detennlnatlon in Mdogical materials. It allows the use of pyrolysis temperatures of 800-850 O C and markedly reduces background absorptlon due to Inorganic salt matrices. This modnier allows direct determlnatlon of cadmium In blood, serum, and urine wlth detection lhnlts (2a) of 0.4, 0.14, and 0.10 pg L-’, respectlvely, uskrg calibration agalnst matrix-free reference sdutlons.
In view of reports that the cadmium concentration in the environment is increasing (1) and because of its fairly long biological half-life of about 20 years, monitoring of this highly toxic element is of substantial importance. Highly sensitive techniques permitting direct determination are most desirable for the determination of low cadmium levels because enrichment methods may be prone to contamination and may seriously impair accuracy of cadmium determination. Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) is among the most promising techniques available for rapid and reliable routine determination of “normaln levels of
