[Determination of trace amounts of copper by flow injection vapor generation AAS].

A method for the determination of copper by FI-VGAAS (flow injection vapor generation atomic absorption spectrometry) was developed. The sample solution containing trace amounts of o-phenanthroline and 0.1 mol.L-1 HNO3 was carried out by carrier of 0.1 mol.L-1 HNO3 and merged with sodium tetrahydroborate solution to produce the vapor species of copper, which got separation in gas-liquid separator and was detected in a quartz tube atomizer at 1000 degrees C. A detection limit of 1.8 micrograms.L-1 (3 sigma) of copper was obtained with a sampling frequency of 144/h using a sample volume of 500 microL. The precision RSD was 2.6% (n = 11) at the 100 micrograms.L-1 copper. The method was applied to the analysis of human hair and rice standard reference samples, the results were in good agreement with certified values.