Determination of Beryllium in Soil and Sediment by Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption with a Microwave-Acid Digestion Method.

A method for determination of beryllium in soils and sediments by microwave-acid digestion/graphite furnace atomic absorption (GFAA) is described. In this paper, the working conditions of the instrument are optimized, the drawing of calibration curve is expounded, the pretreatment process of soil and sediments (including microwave heating process and the selection of digestion system) is discussed, and the interference of coexisting elements is examined. The sample was pretreated by microwave digestion parameters using HNO₃/ HCl/HF mixed acid system. The method is fast and simple without matrix modifier, and has no interference by coexisting ions, and has high repeatability and reproducibility. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the limit of detection (LOD) is 0.004 9 mg · kg⁻¹ (sample quantity 0.200 0 g, sample volume 25 mL), and the limits of quantitation (LOQ) is 0.20 mg · kg⁻¹. This method is used to measure the standard samples and actual samples, whether in the laboratory, or between laboratories, has good accuracy and precision.