Issue 25, 2016

A case study for measurement uncertainty of heavy metal analysis in drinking water with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

Abstract

The measurement uncertainty related to the analysis of eight trace elements (Pb, Zn, Cr, Mn, Cu, Cd, Hg and As) in drinking water using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was evaluated in detail. The evaluation section included three steps. Firstly, the major contributions to the uncertainty budget (purity of calibration standards, volume, precision, recovery and calibration curve) were identified. The dominant contributions to uncertainty were found to be the calibration curve and the method recovery. In the second step, the measurement uncertainty values for all individual components that contribute to the uncertainty budget were determined and the components were assembled to get a combined standard measurement uncertainty. The last step involved the calculation of expanded measurement uncertainties by multiplying the combined standard measurement uncertainty by a coverage factor k (k = 2.0 at 95% level of confidence). The expanded measurement uncertainties for the eight trace elements were calculated as (CPb ± 0.17) μg L−1, (CZn ± 0.14) μg L−1, (CCr ± 0.12) μg L−1, (CMn ± 0.11) μg L−1, (CCu ± 0.11) μg L−1, (Ccd ± 0.70) μg L−1, (CHg ± 0.46) μg L−1, (CAs ± 0.48) μg L−1, with k = 2 for all elements. All measurement uncertainty values were found to be below 50% of the values given in the relevant environmental quality standards.

Graphical abstract: A case study for measurement uncertainty of heavy metal analysis in drinking water with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 May 2016
Accepted
20 May 2016
First published
24 May 2016

Anal. Methods, 2016,8, 5087-5094

A case study for measurement uncertainty of heavy metal analysis in drinking water with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

Ö. Tunç Dede, Anal. Methods, 2016, 8, 5087 DOI: 10.1039/C6AY01332E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements