Determination of total chromium traces in tannery effluents by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry, flame atomic absorption spectrometry and UV–visible spectrophotometric methods

Three different analytical methods comprising colorimetric method with 1,5-diphenyl-carbazide, electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ET AAS) and flame atomic absorption spectrometry were utilized in a study to determine traces of chromium (Cr) in synthetic tannery effluent from laboratory scale treatment process variations. All the results obtained using the three different methods showed good agreement and met the requirement of Brazilian regulation for total Cr for effluent discharges (<0.5 mg l−1). However, ET AAS has been the proposed method because it was faster, less laborious, needed smaller volume of sample and presented lower limit of quantification (LOQ=2.2 μg l−1).