2.2.2. Seawater analysis
A National Research Council of Canada certified NASS-5
reference material (∼0.5Min chloride)was analyzed for validation
of the analytical protocol. About 20mL of NASS-5
seawater samples (weighed) were transferred to 30mL clean
polyethylene flasks.Two mililiters of40%HFwas then added
into each flask. Samples were then stored for one night before
analysis. Twenty microliters of 1 g L−1 Pd(NO3)2 solution
was pretreated at 1200 ◦C. Seawater sample was then
directly pipetted from the top of the solution with the use of
the autosampler. The electrothermal program used for the determination
of Cu and Mn using 2 × 25L seawater sample
is presented in Table 1. Blank values were 0.05 gL−1 for Cu
and 0.06gL−1 for Mn, respectively. A 5-s baseline offset
compensation (BOC) time was used. The atomic signal wasrecorded on a floppy disk. The data were then converted to
ASCII format with the “peak data reformat” Perkin–Elmer
software, and then transferred to Microsoft Excel 5 for mathematical
post-treatments of the signal.A2-s moving sumwas
used for peak area measurements.