Reliable calibration by nonlinear standard addition method in the presence of additive interference effects.

Abstract: The possibility of adapting the Standard Addition Method (SAM) to calibration in very difficult analytical conditions, namely when there is a need to determine an analyte with the use of nonlinear calibration graph and in the presence of matrix components causing additive interference effect, is investigated. To this aim the SAM in the common version and the Chemical H-point Standard Addition Method (C-HPSAM) realized by the flow injection technique were applied. Specifically, a flow manifold was used for construction of a set of nonlinear calibration graphs in different chemical conditions. As the graphs were intersected indicating both the additive interference effect and the analytical result free of this effect, the analyte concentration in the sample was able to be obtained with improved accuracy. The applicability of this approach was verified on the example of spectrophotometric determination of paracetamol in pharmaceuticals and of total acidity in wines. The C-HPSAM method enabled complete compensation of the additive effect and obtaining analytical results at a relative error not exceeding 6.0%.