Estudou-se a especiação dos metais pesados (Cu, Cd, Cr, Zn, Pb e Ni) em sedimentos do rio Tietê, coletados nos reservatórios de Rasgão, Tecelagem e Barra Bonita. Para isto, adotou-se o protocolo de extração seqüencial proposta por Community Bureau of Reference (BCR), que consiste em três etapas de tratamento, as soluções extratores utilizados foram: etapa 1, solução de ácido acético 0,11 mol/L; Etapa 2, solução de cloridrato de hidroxilamina 0,1 mol/L pH 2 (ajustado com HNO3); Etapa 3, ataque com peróxido de hidrogênio em meio ácido e posterior extração dos metais com solução de acetato de amônio pH 2 (ajustado com HNO3). Nas mesmas amostras efetuou-se uma extração com ácido clorídrico 0,1 mol/L, no sentido de avaliar a concentração de metais potencialmente biodisponíveis. Realizou-se ainda a determinação do teor total de metais. Tanto a extração seqüencial como a extração parcial em ácido diluído foram conduzidas em ambientes anaeróbico (mantendo o EH da amostra) e aeróbicos (após secagem em estufa - simulando material dragado e depositado às margens do rio). As concentrações dos metais presentes nos extratos foram determinadas através das técnicas de absorção atômica, espectrometria de emissão atômica, voltametria de redissolução anódica com eletrodo de gota pendente e a técnica proposta por este trabalho, voltametria de redissolução anódica com eletrodo de filme de mercúrio acoplada ao sistema de injeção seqüencial. A técnica de voltametria de redissolução anódica acoplada ao sistema de injeção sequencial apresentou vantagens em relação a voltametria de redissolução com eletrodo de gota pendente, apresentando maior reprodutibilidade e sensibilidade, redução do tempo de análise e consumo de reagentes, e completa automação dos parâmetros instrumentais, como: vazão, número de reagentes, volumes e seqüência dos reagentes aspirados. / Speciation of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni and Cr) in sediments of the Tietê river (SP), collected at Rasgão, Tecelagem e Barra Bonita reservoirs, was studied by the sequential extraction protocol proposed by the Community Bureau of Reference (BCR). This protocol is composed of three steps, that use the following reagent extractors. Step1: 0,11 mol/L acetic acid. Step 2: Hydroxylamine hydrochloride, acidified to pH 2 with nitric acid. Step 3: Oxidation with acidified 30 % (v/v) hydrogen peroxide followed by extraction with 1mol/L ammonium acetate acidified to pH 2 with nitric acid. Samples were also extracted with 0.10 mol/l hydrochloric acid in order to evaluate the bioavailable metal concentrations. The total concentration of metals was also determined. The sequential extraction and the extraction with hydrochloric acid were performed in anoxic (keeping the negative Eh of samples, as in the time of sampling) and oxidant conditions (after drying samples at 60ºC in the atmosphere, simulating dredged material). Metal determination was performed by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS), Induced Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-EAS), Anodic Stripping Voltammetry with the Mercury Hanging Drop Electrode (ASV-HMDE), and the technique proposed in this work: ASV automated by Sequential Injection (ASV-SI) using the Thin Film Mercury Electrode (TFME). The proposed technique presented improved reproducibility and shorter time of analysis in comparison to conventional ASV-HMDE. In addition, the ASV-SI permits easy and fast change of operational parameters such as flow rate and sample volume, that have direct influence on the deposition time.

In this work, the application of boron-doped diamond electrodes with various surface pre- treatment were tested on selected oxidizable and reducible model compounds, specifically para and ortho cresols and 2'-deoxycytidine and 7-deazaadenosine labeled by 4-nitrophenyl triazole. The aim of the study was the investigation of electrochemical and adsorptive processes with respect to the development of electroanalytical methods of detection of the selected compounds, or utilization of boron-doped diamond electrodes as detectors in liquid-flow systems. Cresols were used as the model oxidizable compound. On O-terminated and polished boron- doped diamond electrodes, cresols provide oxidation signal owing to their oxidation to methylphenoxy radical at comparable potentials as on other carbon-based electrodes used as a reference in this work, i.e., glassy carbon electrode, pyrolytic graphite electrode, and carbon paste electrode. These carbon electrode materials show relatively high propensity to adsorption of reaction products, while such adsorption is minimal on boron-doped diamond. In situ anodic activation allows for a rapid regeneration of boron-doped diamond surface prior to each scan. A differential pulse voltammetric method that was developed with a detection limit of 0.61 mol∙l-1 to 2.97 mol∙l-1...