Heavy metals have long been considered a significant threat to human health due to their high toxicity and long-term bioaccumulation in the human body through digestion and inhalation. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) established regulatory limits for the maximum concentration levels (MCLs) of certain heavy metal contaminants such as lead, cadmium, and iron in drinking water. However, the MCLs of those heavy metals are sometimes lower than the detection limits of many common analytical instruments, such as Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS). To ensure the compliance of water quality with EPA drinking water standards, this study presents a new developed method that is simple, accurate, and inexpensive for the detection of iron, lead, and cadmium at low concentration levels based on cloud point extraction (CPE) and using only FAAS. By utilizing both 2,4-diamino-4-phenyl-1,3,5-triazine (DPT) and 3-amino-7-dimethylamino-2-methylphenazine (Neutral Red, NR) as chelating agents, and Triton X-114 as surfactant, iron, cadmium and lead can be effectively preconcentrated in water samples. The high reproducibility of the results indicates that this method can be successfully applied to the analysis of iron, cadmium and lead in water samples using only FAAS.

Analysis of heavy metals in water using cloud point extraction and flame atomic absorption spectrometry

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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