Slurry sampling in combination with flame atomic absorption spectrometry was employed for the direct determination of four essential trace elements, namely Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn in Antarctic krill. The effect of instrumental operating conditions and slurry sampling preparation on the analytical signal was investigated. For the determination of Cu, Fe and Zn, samples were suspended in a solution containing 2 mol L-1 HNO3. In the case of Mn, 4 mol L-1 HNO3 was necessary for the preparation of the slurry. The precision between sample replicates was better than 5%. The method was applied to the direct determination of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn in Antarctic krill samples using aqueous reference solutions to prepare the calibration curves. The results obtained were in good agreement with those achieved by FAAS and ICP-AES after microwave-assisted wet digestion of the krill samples. The detection limits were 4.5, 1.0, 4.9 and 8.4 mug L-1 for Cu, Zn, Mn and Fe, respectively.
Antarctic krill; slurry; FAAS; ICP-AES
