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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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How to measure the concentration of heavy metals

I am new to the world of electroplating. Please tell me the name of the readily available lab instrument that measures the concentrations of heavy metals and Cyanide in the waste water effluent?

Many thanks

Anwar Adari
Plating Shop Employee - Amman, Jordan
April 11, 2009

Hi, Anwar. I believe you are thinking of a simple "colorimeter" or "spectrophotometer". It's basically a color test, but with an instrument rather than your eyes. There is a little more to it than that, though. Usually you must first react the wastewater with some special chemicals that will produce color proportional to the quantity of heavy metal. And sometimes you must first "digest" the wastewater per some procedure to eliminate interferences before you do the reaction.

It is much faster and easier to use an atomic absorption spectrophotometer ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , where the sample is burned and and the concentration is determined by the characteristic wavelengths that are emitted, but these machines are a hundred times as expensive.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April , 2009

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