Agnieszka Przybyłowicz - Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian University
language:
English
journal language:
English
abstract in English:
A graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (
GF AAS
) method was developed for the
determination of copper in selected alternative materials.
The method is characterised by a low limit of detec
tion, good accuracy and satisfactory precision, while
the duration of a single measurement is approximately
80 s. It allowed an application of the developed method
to determine copper in small samples of hair and nails
with equipment available in most analytical labora
tories. The developed GF AAS method was successfully
applied to routine analyses using samples collected from healthy humans. The study has shown similar con
centration of copper in fingernails and toenails collected from women and men, which was 2–3 times lower
than concentration of this element in hair of both
genders. The correlation between concentration of copper
in nails and hair allows one to use hair, fingernails an
d toenails as invariable materials for the evaluation of
chronic exposure to copper.