New technique for the detection of ppb levels of lead in drinking water by HG/GC/PID

Sunday Morning August 10, 2014 

ACS DIVISION OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

ANYL ORAL SESSION: Advances in Separation 

Title: New technique for the detection of ppb levels of lead in drinking water by HG/GC/PID

Presenting author: 
Jennifer Maclachlan
Contributing Author: Jack Driscoll

Abstract Body: The EPA has recently reduced the action level for lead in drinking water from 25 ppb to 15 ppb. Since Pb⁺⁴ forms a stable hydride that has an ionization potential of >10 eV, it can be detected using a photoionization detector (PID) with a lamp energy of 10.6 eV. We have shown previously (1) that hydride generation PID can be used to detect arsenic in well water at sub ppb levels. We have modified that method by using H₂O₂ to oxidize any Pb⁺² to Pb⁺⁴. We are now able to detect total Pb in water down to 1 ppb. The hydride generation minimizes any sample preparation, the new PID improves the detection limit by 3-10 fold, and the GC is used to separate the PbH₄from other metal hydrides and their organic counterparts.

Driscoll, JN et, al, “Detection of As in VT Well Water by HG/GC/PID", ACS Meeting in NOLA, April 2013

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