Standard Practices for Digestion of Water Samples for Determination of Metals by Flame Atomic Absorption, Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption, Plasma Emission Spectroscopy, or Plasma Mass Spectrometry

1.1 Most atomic absorption and plasma emission spectroscopy, and plasma-mass spectrometric test methods require that the metals of interest be dissolved in a liquid phase before being introduced into the spectrophotometer. These practices describe digestion or dissolution procedures whereby analyte metals associated with the solid fraction of a sample can be brought into solution for subsequent analysis. The following practices are included:

1.2 These practices have been demonstrated to be applicable to a wide variety of sample types and sample matrices, and in many cases, will give complete dissolution of the analyte metals of interest. They are by no means the only digestion procedures available.

1.3 The user of these practices should be cautioned that these practices may not completely dissolve all portions of a sample's solid phase and may not give complete recovery of the desired analyte metals. In these cases, other digestion techniques are available that will effect complete dissolution of a sample. It is the user's responsibility to ensure the validity of these practices for use on their particular sample matrix, for their metals of interest.

1.4 This practice assumes that the criteria established in Guide D 3856 can be met.

1.5 These digestion procedures have been selected for their wide application, low cost, and ease of use.

1.6 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard. The values given in parentheses are for information only.

1.7 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. Specific hazard statements are given in Section 6.