Robotic sample pretreatment coupled with flow-injection on-line sorption preconcentration?Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for the determination of copper in environmental and biological materials

Abstract

An automated robotic method for sample pretreatment was developed for copper determination in environmental and biological materials at the low microgram per gram level. The robotic station performing the preliminary operations as weighing of sample and acid digestion was coupled with the flow-injection (FI) on-line sorption preconcentration of the pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate chelate of copper on the walls of a PTFE knotted reactor (KR) and subsequent electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) determination of copper. The accuracy of the method was demonstrated by the analysis of environmental and biological certified reference materials. The precision is 1.4–2.5% relative standard deviation in the 4–50 μg g−1 concentration range. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lab Robotics and Automation 10: 293–298, 1998