Use of the differential pulse cathodic adsorptive stripping voltammetric method for the simultaneous determination of trace amounts of cadmium and zinc

A selective and sensitive method for the determination of cadmium and zinc is presented. The method is based on the adsorptive accumulation of the complexes of Cd(II) and Zn(II) ions with 4-amiono-5-methyl-2.4-dihydro-3H-1,2,4-triazol-3-tion (MMTT) onto hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE), followed by the reduction of the adsorbed species using a voltammetric scan using differential pulse modulation. The ligand concentration, pH, potential and time of accumulation, scan rate, and pulse height were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, a linear calibration curve was obtained for the concentration of Cd(II) and Zn(II) in the range of 5-450 and 5-850 ng/mL, respectively, with a detection limit of 1.7 ng/mL Cd(II) and 1.3 ng/mL Zn(II). The ability of the method was evaluated by analysis of cadmium and zinc in water and alloy samples.