Factors In The Determination Of Calcium Copper Iron Sodium And Phosphorus In Some Ecological Materials

The effects of heating temperature, time and acid-mixture in the determination of calcium, Copper, Iron, Sodium and phosphorus in some soil and plant samples by wet-digestion using Atomic absorption spectrophotometer, flame photometer and UV spectrophotometer have been studied. The values of Iron and Sodium obtained tend to increase with increase in temperature, while calcium and phosphorus show a decrease with increase in the digestion temperature. The copper values appear essentially independent of the heating temperature within the range studied. A comparative analysis by dry ashing at two temperatures agrees with the above trends. Perchloric-nitric acid mixture gave the highest values for calcium and phosporus while the highest values of sodium were obtained using nitric-sulphuric acid mixture at the same temperature. The values of copper and Iron obtained were not significantly affected by the change in acid mixture. The values of sodium obtained by Atomic Absorption in the presence of an ionization buffer were comparable to those obtained by the flame emission technique. It is suggested that the use of the same digest solution to determine several minerals, as is often done, may lead to errors, and optimum conditions should be determined for each mineral in accurate analysis.

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