Direct determination of barium in Sea water by inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry

A method for the determination of barium in sea water was investigated using inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry, and sea water samples from the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean were directly analyzed by this method. Artificial sea water was used to prepare matrix matched standard solutions to overcome the problem of physical interference. The detection limit (signal/noise ratio=2) for barium in deionized and distilled water was 0.08µg l^?1 and in sea water, 0.12µg l^?1. The reproducibilities in the purified water and in the sea water at the 10µg l^?1 level were 0.7% a#FFFFFFnd 0.5%, respectively. The barium concentration in both the Japan Sea and the Pacific Ocean increased with depth and ranged between 5.5–10.0µg l^?1 and 4.1–18.4µg l^?1, respectively.