Determination of Beryllium in Soils by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Palladium Chloride as a Matrix Modifier

Beryllium is a harmful metal element and there is no national standard method for its determination in soils. A method system was established for the determination of Beryllium in soils by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS) with hydrochloric acid-nitric acid-hydrofluoric as microwave digestion. The sensitizing effects of palladium, aluminum nitrate, magnesium nitrate and calcium salt were investigated. The results showed that atomic shape was sharp, background absorption was small and sensitivity was improved with palladium chloride as the matrix modifier when the ashing temperature and atomization temperature were increased to 1100℃ and 2650℃, respectively. The other 3 modifiers improved sensitivity but background absorptions were larger. The conditions of experiment were optimized and the coexisting elements Fe, Mg, K, Na, Ca, Ti, Cu, Ba, Mn, Zn, Pb and Sr had no interference. The results showed that good linearity ranged from 0 μg/L to 4.00 μg/L, detection limit was 0.01 μg/g (sampling quality was 0.2000 g and constant volume was 50 mL), RSD of standard samples were from 3.5% to 6.7%, and spiked recoveries of the actual soil sample were from 84.0% to 113.0%. The result of national standard material was in the range of certified values. Compared with extraction spectrophotometric method, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, this method is simple and inexpensive.