[Simultaneous determination of iron, copper and cobalt in food samples by diode array detection-flow injection...

A flow injection-CCD-diode array detection spectrophotometric method using partial least squares (PLS) algorithm for the simultaneous determination of iron, copper and cobalt in food samples has been established. The method was based on the chromogenic reaction between metallic ions and 5-Br-PADAP in the presence of acetic acid-acetic sodium buffer solution (pH 5) containing 30 g x L(-1) ascorbic acid and 2% (phi) Triton X-100. The overlapped spectra of these complexes were collected by CCD diode array detector and the multi-wavelength absorbance data were processed using partial least squares algorithm. The reaction conditions and analytical parameters of FIA were investigated. The food samples can be analyzed without any separation after digestion, and the sampling rate was 45 x h(-1). The linear ranges of Fe2+, Cu+ and Co2+ were 0.2-10.0 microg x mL(-1), 0.1-5.0 microg x mL(-1), and 0.01-1.0 microg x mL(-1) and the detection limits were 0.2, 0.1 and 0.01 microg x mL(-1), respectively. The average recoveries of spiked samples were 89.4%-110.8% for the three elements. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of samples was in the range of 1.1%-12.1%. Comparing the proposed method with ICP-AES, the relative error was below 12.1%. Above all, this method is simple, quick, sensitive, selective, and easy to be apply and generalize.