Evaluation of ultrasonic-assisted digestion procedure for copper, zinc and iron determination in seaweed

Abstract

Ultrasound-assisted digestion is a promising alternative digestion method in the analysis o f solid samples for trace metals determination. In this work, ultrasoundassisted digestion (UAD) was evaluated as a digestion method for metals measurement in seaweed by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). The effects o f several digestion parameters such as types of acid, concentration acid and sonication time were fully investigated. The optimum conditions used for the extraction o f metals were using 5 mL of 5% v/v hydrochloric acid and sonicated for 40 minutes. Ultrasonic extraction developed is as an advantageous alternative to classical methods for sample preparation due to its simplicity, rapidity and efficient extraction procedure applied on seaweed sample.