Effect of Wastewater Sample Pre-Treatment on Determination of Selected Heavy Metals Using ICP-MS Method

Abstract

Polychlorinated substances, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and pesticides are among the priority even at low concentra - tions. The problem, however, is that such low concentrations are impossible to measure using most available methods. This research focused on the determination of selected priority substances – heavy metals, namely lead and cadmium, in which the determination of Pb and Cd in wastewater by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was preceded by water sample pre-treatment. The paper deals with the influence of the pre-treatment on the resulting measured values. Two processes were selected as pre-treatment processes. The first pre-treatment procedure was a simple filtration using a filter paper for moderate filtration. As the second proce - dure, we applied decomposition of the sample by nitric acid in the open system. The pre-treated wastewater samples were subsequently examined using ICP-MS. Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that decomposition of the sample by nitric acid in the open system is a more suitable pre-treatment method for water samples.