Determination of cadmium and copper with ET-AAS after electrochemical deposition on a graphite electrode

The electrodeposition of cadmium and copper on a special graphite disk electrode has been performed at controlled potential. The electrode with the deposit has been inserted into the graphite atomizer HGA-400 by an adapted automatic sampler for the final determination by ET-ASS. The sensitivity of determination has been 0.371 (microg l(-1))(-1) for cadmium and 0.025 (microg l(-1))(-1) for copper for 2 min electrodeposition and increased linearly with the time of deposition. The limit of detection (3s(bl)) has been 7.9 ng l(-1) Cd(2+) and 0.11 microg l(-1) Cu(2+) for 2 min deposition and it has been improved with increased time of electrodeposition. The technique has been applied to the determination of both metals in seawater and to speciation in the presence of EDTA complexing agent.