Determination of Chromium (VI) in Airborne Particulate Matter by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

ABSTRACTHexavalent chromium Cr(VI) is a well-established carcinogen associated with lung, nasal, and sinus cancer. Cr(VI) threshold limit values in workroom air have been recently lowered. Consequently, the currently available analytical methods are insufficiently sensitive or high cost. In this paper, a simple, cost-effective, sensitive, and reproducible method using solid-phase extraction with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for determination of hexavalent chromium in airborne samples is reported. The method validation included selectivity, linearity, accuracy, and precision. Interferences from other ions likely to be present in airborne samples, including trivalent chromium, were tested and selectivity was demonstrated. The detection and quantification limits were, respectively, as low as 0.1 and 0.4 µg L−1. The linearity ranged from 0.5 to 50.0 µg L−1, with a regression coefficients exceeding 0.998. The extraction recovery exceeded 98%. The developed method was successfully compared with...