Determination of platinum and palladium in road dust after their separation on immobilized fungus by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

A flow solid phase extraction procedure based on biosorption of Pt(IV) and Pd(II) on Aspergillus sp. immobilized on cellulose resin Cellex-T was proposed for the separation and preconcentration of Pt and Pd before their determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). The analytical conditions including sample pH, eluent type, flow rates of sample and eluent solutions were examined. The analytes were selectively retained on the biosorbent in acidic medium (pH 1) and subsequently eluted from the column with 1 mL of thiourea solution (0.25 mol L-1 thiourea in 0.3 mol L-1 HCl). The reproducibility of the procedure was below 5%. The limit of detection of the method was 0.020 ng mL(-1) for Pt and 0.012 ng mL(-1) for Pd. The method validation was performed by analysis of certified reference materials BCR-723 (tunnel dust) and SARM-76 (platinum ore). The developed separation procedure was applied to the determination of Pt and Pd in road dust samples by ETAAS. The applied biosorbent is characterized by high sorption capacity: 0.47 mg g(-1) for Pt and 1.24 mg g(-1) for Pd. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.