ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Trace determination of heavy metals and electrochemical removal of lead from drinking water

Ozge Surucu

Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey

E-mail: ozge.surucu@ege.edu.tr

Received: 4 March 2021  Accepted: 15 April 2021

Abstract:

In this work, two independent methods including inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and electrochemistry were combined to analyze and treat drinking water. ICP-MS is a highly sensible and multi-element capable method, so heavy metal ions content of drinking water samples coming from various resources was determined using ICP-MS. At the same time, average, median and limit of detection (LOD) of elements existing in water samples were obtained to compare regional variations between resources. 10 different elements (Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Se, Cd, Sb, Ba and Pb) were detected in rural, well and urban water. Only Pb level (18.73 µg L⁻¹) exceeded the standard level (15.00 µg L⁻¹) in well water, so an electrochemical removal procedure was developed. To remove Pb present in drinking water, electrochemical techniques (cyclic and square wave voltammetry) were used and nano-dimensional new surfaces (graphene oxide and nanotubes modified gold and platinum) were created to obtain specific Pb behavior (− 0.20 V vs. Ag/AgCl). After removal, LOD levels of the detected elements were ranged between 0.03 and 5.73 µg L⁻¹, and Pb level was lowered to 8.09 µg L⁻¹ in well water. In this way, electrodeposition was successfully applied to achieve metal ion-free water samples.

Keywords: Drinking water; Pollutants; Heavy metals; ICP-MS; Electrochemical removal

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-01662-3

Chemical Papers 75 (8) 4227–4238 (2021)