Comparison of extraction agents for metal determination in sediments from artificial lakes and rivers in Serbia

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effectiveness of three different extraction agents for the extraction of 25 elements from sediment samples collected from 4 artificial lakes and 12 rivers in Serbia (33 samples in total). The extraction efficiency of the agents was evaluated by its ability to extract the highest quantity of the elements. For that purpose, three acids (1M HCl, 2M HNO3 and 0.43M CH3COOH) have been used. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used for quantitative determination of following elements: Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Ni, Na, Pb, Sb, Se, Sr, V, and Zn. The extraction with 1M HCl has shown the best results for the majority of investigated elements (especially Sr, Mn and Ca). Antimony (Sb) was detected only after extraction with 0.43M CH3COOOH, while selenium (Se) could not be detected when 2M HNO3 was applied as extraction agents. The present study could be very useful for choosing a suitable method for specific elements and also can be helpful in the evaluation of the contaminants in freshwater sediments in Serbia. This might contribute to environmental risk assessment of the present elements.