I have used following method for acid digestion :

2 g of the powdered dry sample was added with 30 ml conc. HNO3 (nitric acid, 65%, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) steadily in a flask and the sample was left for a night. 4 ml 30 % H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide, Chempur, Poland) was added to the flask and left for five hours (Li et al. 2013). After 5 hrs, samples were heated in a hot plate at 250°C till near dryness. Then 10 ml of conc. HNO3 was added to the residue till further near dryness. The process was repeated till the completion of the digestion of organic matters from the sample. After cooling the residue was transferred to the flask and diluted with deionised water. The sample was then filtered through filter paper (Whatman #42) and transferred to the chemical resistant bottles till further analysis for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn in Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS, AVANTA, GBC, Australia).

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