title: Determination of antimony in drinking waters by an inexpensive, reproducible hydride generator for atomic spectroscopy.
abstract: A method for determining antimony in drinking waters is described. In order to prevent a substantial error caused by the different oxidation states of antimony, Sb(V) is reduced to Sb(III) with potassium iodide-ascorbic acid. Covalent hydride is generated with a home made device by adding NaBH4. The hydride is then atomized in a flame-heated silica tube and atomic absorption is measured spectrophotometrically. The optimal conditions for this determination are discussed and interference effects are described. Results obtained by determining linearity range (0-200 ng), detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) limits (LOD = 0.347 ng/ml, LOQ = 1.158 ng/ml), precision (instrumental CV 4.08% and method CV 7.74%) and accuracy performed by recovery assays (96.1%) show that the method is useful for antimony determination at the concentration usually present in drinking water.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barbera
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Farré
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Romero
mesh_terms: D000965:Antimony / Q000032:analysis*; D002138:Calibration; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007700:Kinetics; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000965:Antimony