Geochemistry Examination of Surface Sediments from Sadong River, Sarawak, Malaysia: Validation of ICP-OES Assessment of Selected Heavy Metals

Abstract

The dependable analytical method for the assessment of heavy metals of interest
(As, Al, Mn, Ca, Cd, Cu, Fe, Cr, Ni, Co, Zn and Pb) in sediments assembled in the Sadong
River, Sarawak state of Malaysia was reported. The total acid digestion extraction
proceeded by ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometry) was
used for this reason. The analytical method was validated as well as the implementation of
enough quality control activities in order to supply reliable information. Duplicate analysis
was estimated in order to achieve the precision reproducibility conditions. To determine
the accuracy of the results certified reference material was used. The limits of detection
and quantification for all selected metals were below the acceptable limits in the examined
sediment samples. The acquired dependable information could be used for evaluations of
the correlation between anthropogenic activity in the aged and the geochemical
characteristics of the sediments.