Square wave catalytic adsorptive voltammetric determination of osmium, ruthenium and lead in vegetable environmental bio-monitors

Abstract

The present work regards the simultaneous voltammetric determination of Os(VIII), Ru(III) and Pb(II) by square wave catalytic adsorptive voltammetry (SWCAdV) in vegetable environmental bio-monitor matrices. The analytical procedure was verified by the analysis of the standard reference materials: Olive Leaves BCR-CRM 062 and Tomato Leaves NIST-SRM 1573a. Precision and accuracy, expressed as relative standard deviation and relative error, respectively, were generally lower than 6% in all cases, whereas the limits of detection for all elements were lower than 5.0 μg kg⁻¹. Once set up on the standard reference materials, the analytical procedure was transferred and applied to laurel leaves sampled in proximity to superhighway and in the Po river mouth area. A critical comparison with spectroscopic measurements is discussed.

Keywords:

• osmium
• ruthenium
• lead
• voltammetry
• vegetable bio-monitors
• spectroscopy

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Professor Dora Melucci for her part of the experimental work and assistance. Investigation supported by University of Bologna (Funds for Selected Research Topics).