Concentration and spectrochemical determination of trace metals in urine with a poly(dithiocarbamate) resin and inductively coupled plasma--atomic emission spectrometry

The separation and concentration capabilities of a poly(dithiocarbamate) resin combined with the detection power of Inductively Coupled Plasma--Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP--AES) were examined for the determination of 10 trace metals in urine. The separation of analyte metals from the major electrolyte and organic matrix constituents of urine and their concentration by 125 times into a 2 milliliter final volume were demonstrated. The only treatment of the urine prior to its introduction to the resin was collection over HCl and filtration. Quantitative recoveries from resin were obtained by using a mixed-acid digestion procedure. Simple acid-matched reference solutions were adequate for analytical calibration