ELSEVIER Talanta 43 (1996) 1539-1544 Talanta Analysis of lead and tin in strong brine and high iron systems using the microsampling technique T.S. Wai, H. Darus, N. Mohamed” Sdzod of Chemical Sciences. Uthersiri Sains Malaysia, I1 800 Penang. Malqvsia Received 2 February 1996; accepted 15 March 1996 Abstract The development of hydrometallurgical techniques such as the iron(II1) chloride+sodium chloride system for the recovery of metals from scrap materials necessitates the analyses of these metals in a high salt medium during the recovery studies. An alternative method for the analysis of lead and tin in strong brine and high iron systems by flame atomic absorption spectrometry is a microsampling technique in combination with in situ standard addition. Relative standard deviations of 1.2% and 2.2% were obtained for the analysis of lead and tin respectively. The accuracy for the method is alsosatisfactory with recoveries rangingfrom 90% to 102%. The microsampling techniqueis rapid and simple.requiressmall volumesof sample and offers no clogging problems during the atomic absorption analyses. Kqwwds: Lead and tin analysis; Microsampling technique 1. Introduction The dissolution of scrap materials from which metals of interest are to be recovered is one of the basic steps in the recycling especially that of solid scrap materials. One of the most common solvent systemsused in the dissolution of metal alloys is a mixture of concentrated acids. For example, a standard procedure in the dissolution of solder is by heating the alloy in a mixture of concentrated hydrochloric and nitric acids. A mixture of fluoro- boric acid and hydrogen peroxide has also been used to dissolve a lead alloy containing tin and * Corresponding author. Fax: (60) 4-657-4854. antimony [I]. The use of hydrometallurgical pro- cessing for the recovery of metals from scrap materials offers another alternative. Kolodziej and Adamski [2] have suggested the ferric chloride hydrometallurgical process which uses acid solu- tions of ferrous chloride to recover silver from electronic scrap materials. Langer et al. [3] have tried the cupric chloride process for the recovery of copper from scrap materials. McDonald et al. have used cupric bromide in the recovery of cop- per from copper sulfide and ore concentrates [4]. An attempt has been made to use ferric chloride in a solution of sodium chloride of high concen- tration as a leaching reagent for solder in order to recover the tin and lead (T.S. Wai and H. Darus, 0039-9140~96/$lS.O0 Q 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved PII SOO39-9140(96)01935-Z