Comparison of the Acid Combinations in Microwave-assisted Digestion of Marine Sediments for Heavy Metal Analyses

Sediments as a tool for monitoring contamination by heavy metals in the environment has long been considered. It is therefore a necessity to produce reliable data for such purposes. Microwave-assisted acid dissolution has proved to be a suitable method for digesting complex matrices, such as sediments. However, due to the infancy of the technique, the procedures are numerous and varied in both the reagents used and microwave conditions. In this study, the efficiency of two recommended acid mixtures, a HNO3–HF mixture and an aqua regia–HF mixture, under the same microwave digestion conditions were compared using certified reference materials. It was observed that the HNO3–HF mixture showed better efficiency than the aqua regia–HF mixture in most of the heavy metals analyzed in all certified reference materials used.