Advances in On-Line Hydride Generation Atomic Spectrometric Determination of Arsenic

Flow analysis has played a major role in many areas of chemical analysis, making operations more robust and precise. It facilitates experimental studies opening new areas of research. In the field of arsenic research, there are various examples of surveys concerning arsenic determination and its species with the use of flow injection analysis (FIA) and sequential injection analysis (SIA). The increasing concern over the human exposure to arsenic and its species has necessitated the development of rapid, highly sensitive, precise, and accurate analytical methods for its determination in trace levels in environmental and biological samples. This review provides a literature survey on the automatic on-line hydride generation methodologies coupled to atomic spectrometry for determination of inorganic and organic arsenic species, during the last decades. All advances in on-line manifolds are categorized and highlighted. There are several reports of manifolds and setup instrumentation concerning hydride generation including continuous flow analysis (CFA), FIA, SIA, lab-on-valve (LOV), multicommutation flow systems, and hyphenated techniques. On-line preconcentration and pretreatment methodologies coupled with hydride generation such as solid phase extraction, co-precipitation and trapping are also discussed, as they are of particular interest in the development of fully automated methods.