Determination of Cr(VI) in ambient airborne particulate matter by a species-preserving scrubber-sampling technique

Airborne particulate matter has been sampled at a location close to a metallurgical plant in North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and first results on the chromium(VI) content in the collected dust are presented. A special procedure using a scrubber as sampling device was used to preserve Cr(VI) during the sampling procedure. The scrubber solution which consisted of 0.1 mol L(-1) TRIS-buffer solution was adjusted to a slightly alkaline pH of 8.6 to reduce the oxidation potential of Cr(VI) and to avoid possible oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI), for example by oxygen (or ozone at ambient concentrations). After sampling Cr(VI) was pre-concentrated on an anion-exchange material and eluted with aqueous 0.6 mol L(-1) sodium perchlorate solution. After elution, a species-selective complex of Cr(VI) with diphenylcarbazide (DPC) was prepared; this was extracted into n-hexanol and quantified by UV-visible spectrophotometry. A detection limit of 0.9 ng m(-3) for Cr(VI) in ambient aerosols can be achieved with this method.