Emission Spectrographic Determination of Trace Elements in Airborne Particulate Matter Collected on Silver Membrane Filter

Abstract

An emission spectrographic method is described to determine the concentrations of aluminum, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, iron, lead, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, tin, vanadium, and zinc in airborne particulate matter collected on a silver membrane filter. The sample filter is dissolved with dilute nitric acid. Hydrochloric acid is added to precipitate silver ion as silver chloride. After the solution is evaporated to dryness, the residue is subjected to dc arc excitation. The precision of the method is better than ±18%.