Determination of lead in fly-ash from a garbage incinerator by atomic-absorption and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry
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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Determination of Inorganic Arsenic in a Wide Range of Food Matrices using Hydride Generation - Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.
Published on: September 1, 2017
M Andersson1, C Ericzon, A Olin
1Department of Analytical Chemistry, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 531, S-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden.
Abstract:
The lead content in fly-ash collected by an electrostatic precipitator has been determined by atomic-absorption spectrometry (AAS) after decomposition by four different leaching/dissolution techniques, and also determined by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRFS) by the standard-addition method. The XRFS data were evaluated by non-linear regression since the standard additions affected the attenuation coefficient of the sample. Good agreement was obtained between the results obtained with AAS and XRFS. It is concluded that lead is quantitatively extracted by hot 1M nitric acid or treatment with hydrofluoric acid/nitric acid. Direct measurement of briquetted samples by XRFS is suggested for rapid monitoring of the lead content in fly-ash from garbage incineration.
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