Simultaneous flow injection analysis of cadmium and lead with differential pulse voltammetric detection

A flow injection (FI) method using multiple differential pulse voltammetric detection for the simultaneous determination of two metal ions was developed and applied to the resolution of Cd(II)-Pb(II) mixtures. The metals are detected by applying two sequential pulses to a three-electrode voltammetric system that uses a flow-through cell accommodating a static mercury-drop working electrode. The influence of the electrode area, flow-rate, pulse frequency, pulse width and sampling time was investigated. Under the experimental conditions used, the two metals were found to interfere with each other. The use of a neural network allows the simultaneous determination of both, in mixtures, with good accuracy. The proposed method is applicable to other complex systems involving different working electrodes and more than two electroactive species.