FAAS Indirect Determination of Sulfate in Drinking Water

FAAS was applied to the indirect determination of sulfate in drinking water. Residual barium ion in the filtrate was determined by FAAS due to the precipitation reaction stoichiometry between sulfate and barium ion. According to the consumption of barium ion, sulfate was determined indirectly. Linear relationship between values of absorbance and mass concentration of barium ion was obtained within 200 mg·L-1, with detection limit (3s) of 1.6 mg·L-1. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of standard water samples, giving values of RSD′s (n=6) in the ranges of 0.72%-3.9% and giving results in consistency with those obtained by GB method.