Determination of antimony by using tungsten trap atomic absorption spectrometry

An electrically heated tungsten coil was used as a trap in the determination of antimony. The technique consists of three steps. Initially, SbH3 is formed by hydride generation procedure; then the analyte species in vapor form are transported to W-coil trap heated at 370 deg. C. Following the preconcentration step, the trap is heated to 895 deg. C; analyte species are revolatilized and transported to the flame-heated quartz atom cell where atomization and the formation of signal take place. The experimental parameters were optimized both for trap and no-trap studies. The most important experimental parameters are concentrations of HCl and NaBH4 solutions, H2 and Ar gas flow rates, and collection and revolatilization temperatures of W-coil. Accuracy was tested using a certified reference material, waste water EU-L-1. Limit of detection for the system is 16 ng l-1 using a sample of 36 ml collected in 4.0 min. Enhancement factor in sensitivity was 17