Abstract

DETERMINATION OF HEAVY METALS IN VARIOUS ROCK SAMPLES IN RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA BY INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS SPECTROMETRY (ICP-MS)

Amal M. Al-Mohaimeed*, Najla S. Alhumud, Sarah A. Bhamid and Waad F. Filfilan

Abstract

Open acid digestion technique was investigated to obtain a simple, rapid, and safe method for the determination of metals in rock samples. The digests were subsequently analyzed for heavy metal content by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The elements (Al, Na, Mn, Cr, Co, Fe, Mo, Zn, Sr, Pd and Cu), which are trace elements, were identified. The rock samples were collected from difference regions in Riyadh. The samples were digested by mixed of acids then analyzed by (ICP-MS). The results showed different concentration of heavy metals in rocks. The highly-concentrated elements, such as Fe, Na and Al were detected in the rock samples collected from industrial zones. Mo, Cd and Pd were present at low concentration in all samples. The proposed method was linear with correlation coefficient(r) values between (0.999-0.996) for all metals with relative standard deviation values (%RSD) in range (0.3 - 5.1).

Keywords: Rock, Heavy metal, open digestion, ICP-MS.