Multielemental Determination of GEOTRACES Key Trace Metals in Seawater by ICPMS after Preconcentration Using an Ethylenediaminetriacetic Acid Chelating Resin

GEOTRACES is an international research project on marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes. GEOTRACES key trace metals in seawater are Al (8−1000 ng/kg), Mn (4−300 ng/kg), Fe (1−100 ng/kg), Cu (30−300 ng/kg), Zn (3−600 ng/kg), and Cd (0.1−100 ng/kg), of which global oceanic distribution will be determined on a number of research cruises. This work introduces a novel method of solid-phase extraction to determine Al, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb in seawater by adjusting the pH of the sample to 6 and carrying out a single preconcentration step. The trace metals were collected from ∼120 mL of seawater using a column of a chelating resin containing the ethylenediaminetriacetic acid functional group and eluted with ∼15 mL of 1 M HNO3. Mn and Fe in the eluate were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) using the dynamic reaction cell mode, and the other metals were measured using the standard mode. Using this procedure, the trace metals were collected quan...