ICP-EOS method development and validation for Cr(VI) determination in plants

Abstract

The aim of this study was the development and validation of a new inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-EOS) method for the determination of Cr(VI) from vegetable samples. The new method was validated entirely by verifying performance parameters (linearity, inter-day and intra-day precision, limit of detection - LOD, and limit of quantification - LOQ). The vegetable samples, mint, and basil were contaminated with a known amount of K2Cr2O7. Cr(VI) was extracted from the vegetable samples by ultrasound-assisted extraction technique, using 0.1 M Na2CO3 as the extraction medium. The ICP-EOS method proved very sensitive, allowing us to determine up to 3.0 µg/g Cr(VI) in vegetable matrices, which was established as the method LOQ.