Determination of zinc in environmental samples by anodic stripping voltammetry Original Research Article

The copper(II) ion interference in zinc determination by anodic stripping voltammetry is removed by the addition of sulphide. The proposed method was found to be applicable to a number of environmental samples. The calibration graph was linear from 0.3 to 11 μg of zinc. The recovery of zinc in three real samples and two synthetic sea water samples spiked with 10 trace metals using the proposed method ranged from 98% to 102%, and the precision of the method was 1.6% (n=10) at the 1 μg level of zinc. Most of the metal ions and anions, except cobalt and nickel, found in the samples under investigation were found not to interfere with the determination. The method is simple, efficient and accurate, and has been used for the determination of zinc in a number of natural water, domestic wastewater, air, oyster tissue, sewage sludge and sediment samples.