Determination of physiological noble metals in human urine using liquid-liquid extraction and Zeeman electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

An extremely sensitive, reliable and simple procedure is described for the determination of physiological palladium, platinum and gold in human urine. The urine samples were adjusted to pH 4 (Pd, Au) or pH 5 (Pt), followed by conversion of the analytes to their pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate complexes. These complexes were separated from the matrix by liquid-liquid extraction into 4-methyl-2-pentanone resulting in a 25-fold enrichment. Determination was by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ET-AAS) using longitudinal inverse alternating current Zeeman-effect background correction. The limits of detection calculated from three standard deviations of the blank values were 20 ng l−1 for Pd and Au and 70 ng l−1 Pt. Within-day precision (n = 10, 5 μg l−1) ranged 5.2%–7.7%. The procedure is successfully applied to determine urinary palladium, platinum and gold in nine unexposed persons. Palladium levels in urine ranged < 20–80 ng l−1 (arithmetical mean=38.7 ng l−1), while gold levels ranged < 20–130 ng l−1 (36.0 ng l−1). Physiological platinum levels in urine were all < 70 ng l−1. The accuracy of the procedure was checked by analyzing a series of urine samples by a second independent method (magnetic sector field inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry) in combination with UV photolysis.