Effect of the suspended particulate materials on the dissolved trace elements in Jiaozhou bay

An off line chelation system combined with ICP-MS technique was employed for quantitative determination of trace elements,namely V,Co,Ni,Cu,Mo,Cd,Pb,U and rare earth elements(REEs) in seawater of Jiaozhou Bay.Two different pretreatments were involved to treat the parallel seawater samples from different depths at the same site,one is acidified the sample after filtering with a 0.45 μm filter,the other is acidified the sample with ultra pure nitric acid directly.Thus the effect of suspended particulate materials on the dissolved trace elements was evaluated.We have found that there are great differences in the concentrations of V,Ni,Cu,Co,Pb and REEs between the same seawater samples that were treated by different pretreatments,which indicate that the suspended particulate materials have a great effect on the analysis of those trace elements in seawater.The differences were caused by the different electric characters,coordination chemistry of the ion or ionic group and the surface charge character of the suspended particulate materials.The primary study indicates that the suspended particulate materials are one of the most important factors that control the distribution of the trace elements in seawater.