Abstract

It has been shown that various acid mixtures have different effects on the recovery of metal levels in fish tissue. This paper looks further into these differences by using various acid mixtures in the preparation and analysis of Bovine Liver Standard. This was done in order to obtain a correlation between some of the common metals and acid mixtures which would provide a greater degree of accuracy in the determination of levels present within the tissues. The analysis was accomplished via A.A. Spectroscopy, with verification of results being made through standard additions, analysis of blanks and acid matrices, and statistical analysis using T and Z tests. The results of this study further verifies prior work by illustrating that an acid mixture of nitric, perchloric, and sulfuric in a 10:1:1 ratio for Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, and that of nitric, and perchloric in a 4:1 ratio for Cd, Pb, Se, provide increased recovery in a range of 26%-45% more when compared to other acid mixtures currently being used for tissue digestion in heavy metal analysis.