Optimizing the procedure of cotton digestion

Cotton is the most important textile fiber in the world. Its metal composition influences the textile processing qualities and for this reason it has to be monitored during the production. Prior the quantification of the metals present, a proper sample preparation is important: three different digestion procedures have been tested for the determination of different major, minor and trace elements by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Homogenized samples were subjected to dry ashing, open-vessel digestion and microwave digestion procedures and analyzed for its elemental composition. The best recoveries of all elements were detected after microwave digestion procedure.