Determination of Pb in river water samples by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry after ultrasound-assisted co-precipitation with manganese dioxide

Abstract

A simple and efficient procedure for separation and pre-concentration using ultrasound-assisted co-precipitation with manganese dioxide was developed for Pb determination by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES). The optimization process was carried out using a two-level factorial design and a Doehlert matrix. Three variables (i.e. concentration of oxidizing solution—KMnO4, concentration of MnSO4 solution and time of ultrasonic irradiation) were used as factors in the optimization. The recoveries, based on the analysis of spiked samples, were between 90% and 105%, and the precision was ≤ 5%. The detection limit and quantification limit for Pb determination were 3.2 and 10.7 μg L− 1, respectively. The proposed method was applied for the determination of Pb in water samples from a river heavily polluted by industrial effluents. The recovery measured by analyte addition technique showed that the proposed pre-concentration method had good accuracy.