Determination of iron and lead by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after preconcentration with sepiolite

By using a new adsorbent (sepiolite) an adsorptionelution and atomic absorption spectrometric method has been developed for the preconcentration and determination of Fe and Pb. Recoveries of the analytes were 82 ± 3% for Fe and 91 ± 2% for Pb at 95% confidence level. For Cu it was only 5 ± 1%. The recovery of iron could be increased to about 97 ± 1% by complexing with EDTA, the recovery of copper only to 57 ± 2%. The optimised method was applied to the determination of lead in metal materials (e.g. brass).