ICP-MS for elemental speciation studies

The use of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) coupled with separation techniques for the purpose of elemental speciation has recently gained a lot of attention. Much of this is due to ever improving separation capabilities of Chromatographic techniques, the high sensitivity of ICP-MS, and the continuing development of better interface techniques. Additionally, there is a growing awareness of the need to monitor various species of an analyte, rather than just total analyte concentrations, due to their often varying natures. For the sake of learning from different elemental speciation approaches, this review brings together some selected types of elemental speciation which have been recently seen in literature. These include separations using various forms of liquid chromatography, such as reversed phase, reversed phase ion pairing, micelle, ion exchange, and size exclusion. Elemental speciation employing gas Chromatographie separations and supercritical fluid separations are discussed as well as elemental speciation using capillary electrophoresis.     

Speciation of nickel by HPLC-UV/MS in pea nodules

A new and sensitive methodology based on normal phase HPLC has been developed for the speciation of nickel in low-complexity plant extracts. The method combines a silica stationary phase column, a 9:1 (v/v) hexane:ethanol mixture as mobile phase, and the detection of nickel complexes by either UV or MS. The developed methodology was applied to the speciation of nickel complexes in the cytoplasm of pea root nodules. Results obtained indicate that nickel citrate and nickel malate accounts for 99% of nickel present in pea nodule cytoplasm fraction. The low detection limit of the method (<0.2 nM) enables nickel speciation in non-hyperaccumulator plants.     

On-line high-performance liquid-chromatographic separation and cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometric determination of methylmercury and inorganic mercury

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (CV-AAS) detection is developed for mercury speciation. In this paper, the efficiency of tetrabutylammonium bromide reagent and sodium chloride in a methanol-water mixture as mobile phase is evaluated for HPLC separation of methylmercury and inorganic mercury coupled with on-line CV-AAS determination. Both mercury species are separated on a reversed-phase C(18) column. Several parameters (e.g. composition and flow-rate of mobile phase) are investigated for the optimization of HPLC separations. CV-AAS technique parameters are also studied for their effect on sensitivity (sodium borohydride and sodium hydroxide concentrations in the reducing agent, reducing agent flow-rate, length of the reduction coil and nitrogen flow-rate). Quantitative recoveries for both inorganic mercury and methylmercury are obtained from a spiked natural water sample.     

Preparative Scale Separation of Xanthones and Iridoid Glycosides by Droplet Counter-Current Chromatography

Droplet counter-current chromatography (DCCC.) has been used for the preparative scale separation of pure constituents from crude medicinal plant extracts. Xanthones and the bitter principles have been isolated from North-American Gentiana species. From a crude extract of Ajuga pyramidalis L . (Labiatae), several hundred mg of iridoid glycosides were obtained within eight hours. The total volume of mobile phase employed for the elution was less than 150 ml. All the separations were achieved far more readily than by conventional chromatography. In addition, some general rules for solvent system selection are proposed.     

Chromatographic isolation of vanadyl porphyrins from heavy oil resins

A broad fraction of petroleum vanadyl porphyrins of high spectral purity was isolated from heavy oil resins with high vanadium content using a two-step chromatographic method. At the first step, the primary concentrate of vanadyl porphyrins was separated from the resins on the silica gel column. At the second step, it was further purified by the gradient elution through the column packed with sulfo-cationite. According to UV—VIS spectroscopy, this technique allows one to isolate up to 70% of vanadyl porphyrins with the spectral purity corresponding to the best results of other purification methods providing only narrow fractions of vanadyl porphyrins of comparable purity. Deoxophylloerythroetioporphyrin (DPEP) and etioporphyrin (Etio) series of vanadyl porphyrins with the carbon number range of C₂₈—C₄₂ and DPEP/ Etio ratio equal to 1.18 were identified by MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry.     

Investigations of properties and binding forms of cadmium and nickel in protein extracts by ultra-/diafiltration, photometry and atomic absorption spectrometry

A combination of a special ultrafiltration procedure with photometry and atomic absorption spectrometry for application in the speciation analysis of protein containing solutions is described, allowing not only the determination of qualitative distribution patterns of metal species but also the quantitative characterization of metal species. According to these investigations, exemplified by cadmium and nickel species in protein extracts of bean seeds, it is demonstrated how to use this method. The results show that cadium and nickel have completely different binding mechanisms in these seeds. Furthermore, these investigations lead to the result that the application of membrane separation techniques in speciation analysis is not limited to the separation into molecular weight ranges only. Much more, they are useful techniques in combination with detection methods to obtain information about binding strength and the complexing ability of different matrices to bind heavy metals.     

Determination of selenoamino acids using two-dimensional ion-pair reversed phase chromatography with on-line detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Analytical methods for the speciation of nine selenium species (selenite, selenate, selenourea, trimethylselenonium ion, selenocystamine, selenocystine, selenocysteine, selenomethionine and selenoethionine) that are commonly encountered in biological and environmental samples were developed. Good separation was achieved by either a mixed ion-pair reversed phase chromatography (LiChrosorb RP 18, 2.5 mM 1-butanesulfonate-8 mM tetramethylammonium hydroxide-4 mM malonic acid-0.05% methanol, pH 4.5) or a conventional ion-pair reversed phase chromatography (Inertsil ODS, 10 mM tetraethylammonium hydroxide-4.5 mM malonic acid, pH 6.8) with on-line ICP-MS detection. Using a 20-μl sample loop, low detection limits around 1 ng ml⁻¹ expressed as Se were achieved for the examined selenium species. The methods were used for the determination of selenoamino acids in a selenium nutritional supplement. The developed methods were found to be rather robust. No alteration of the separation was observed when the protease enzymatic extracts were analyzed without dilution. Both water extracts and enzymatic extracts were chromatographed first with the mixed ion-pair reversed phase chromatographic system, then the major chromatographic peaks were collected and analyzed by the second ion-pair reversed phase chromatographic system for a further verification of their identity. Selenomethionine was found to be the major selenium species in the supplement. A major unknown species, probably Se-adenosylhomocysteine, could be determined in the extracts. A biological reference material, Dolt-2, was also examined for the selenoamino acids. Selenocystine and selenomethionine could be detected in its enzymatic extract, suggesting that Dolt-2 may be used as a reference material for the identification of selenoamino acids in biological and environmental samples. As selenoethionine does not occur naturally in the investigated samples, it is added as an internal standard in this study.     

Separation of metalloporphyrins from metallation reactions by liquid chromatography and electrophoresis

The analytical separation of the indium and manganese complexes of three synthetic, meso-substituted, water-soluble porphyrins from their respective free bases in metallation reaction mixtures is described. The ligands tetra-3N-methylpyridyl porphyrin, tetra-4N-methylpyridyl porphyrin and tetra-N,N,N-trimethylanilinium porphyrin are complexed with In (III) and Mn (III) and are separated from residual free base by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in acidic conditions with gradient elution on ODS bonded stationary phase. Electrophoretic separation is achieved on both cellulose polyacetate strips and polyacrylamide tube gels under basic conditions. Although analytical separations can be achieved by both HPLC and electrophoresis, only HPLC is suitable for the development of preparative scale separations. Column chromatography, ion-pairing and ion-suppression HPLC techniques fail to separate such highly charged and closely related aromatic compounds.     

岩沥青中钒卟啉化合物分子组成分析

以四川广元岩沥青为研究对象,分离出不同性质的亚组分,通过元素分析、紫外可见光谱、高温气相色谱、高分辨率质谱等手段研究钒卟啉类化合物的分子组成,并与塔河稠油中的卟啉化合物进行对比。结果表明,岩沥青中含有大量的金属元素,钒元素含量高达3888μg/g,检测到大量钒卟啉类化合物,以C28-C34初卟啉(ETIO)和脱氧叶红初卟啉(DPEP)为主;与塔河原油相比,DPEP具有明显的相对优势,说明尽管岩沥青具有很高的分子缩合度,但其地质热成熟度较低。青川岩沥青储量巨大、金属含量丰富,具有重要的潜在利用价值。     

High temperature gas chromatography – atomic emission detection of metalloporphyrins in crude oils

High temperature gas chromatography-atomic emission spectroscopy is used for the detection of vanadyl, nickel, and iron porphyrins in crude oils. The operational variables are investigated with regard to the effects on performance in high temperature GC-AED. Under optimal conditions, the method provides charactersitic metal distributions for oils from different sources. The method is also advantageous in the study of decomposition of petroleum metal species. Several crude oils were analyzed for the content of the distillable metals in comparison with total metals as determined by a direct spectroscopic method.     

Investigation of solvent effects in capillary electrophoresis for the separation of biological porphyrin methyl esters

The effects of organic solvents on the capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation of a number of important biological porphyrin methyl esters - six weakly basic, hydrophobic cyclic tetrapyrroles possessing two and four to eight methyl ester groups around the periphery of the porphyrin ring - were investigated in the mode of micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC), and nonaqueous CE. In aqueous MEKC, partial separation of the six neutral porphyrin methyl esters was obtained with an organic modifier (acetonitrile) in the concentration range between 20 and 40%, in which sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) molecules might be present in the form of SDS micelles and/or SDS micelle-like aggregates. Relatively stable SDS micelles can be formed in nonaqueous MEKC using formamide as the separation medium, but the separation of the target analytes remained unsatisfactory. Improved resolution of all six porphyrin methyl esters was obtained using MEEKC with the running buffer consisting of 0.8% w/w n-heptane (oil phase), 2.25% w/w SDS and 1.0% w/w Brij 35 (mixed surfactant), 6.6% w/w 1-butanol (cosurfactant), and 30% v/v 2-propanol (second cosurfactant), but reproducibility in terms of peak areas for certain porphyrins (especially uroporphyrin I octamethyl ester) was found to be very poor. Best separation performances were achieved with nonaqueous CE separations in which the weakly basic porphyrin methyl esters were protonated under strongly acidic conditions (e.g., using 10 mM perchloric acid) in mixed organic solvents. For example, using a 50:50 mixture of methanol and acetonitrile as the separation medium, baseline separation of all six (positively charged) porphyrin methyl esters can be obtained within 3 min and the average precision (RSD, N = 13) in terms of migration time and peak area were 0.55 and 2.16%, respectively.     

Normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography of tocopherols and tocotrienols. Comparison of different chromatographic columns

Natural vitamin E is composed of eight different vitamers (alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocopherols and alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocotrienols). As these eight vitamers have different antioxidant and biological activities, it is necessary to have quantitative data on each substance separately. The aim of this study was to find universal HPLC columns for the separation of all eight components and to test if a few columns of the same material (different batches) will give reproducible results. Normal-phase HPLC separations of vitamin E compounds in a prepared mixture (containing oat extracts, palm oil and tocopherol standards) were tried on six silica, three amino and one diol columns. As shown by calculations of retention factors (k), separation factors (alpha), numbers of theoretical plates (N) and resolutions (Rs), the best separations were obtained on three silica columns and two amino columns using 4 or 5% dioxane in hexane as the mobile phase as well as on a diol column using 4% tert.-butyl methyl ether in hexane as the mobile phase.     

Reversed-phase extraction chromatography of iron(III) with tri-n-butyl phosphate on silica gel

Iron(III) is separated by reversed-phase extraction chromatography with TBP as the stationary phase on a column of silica gel, with 2-6M hydrochloric acid as the mobile phase. From knowledge of the distribution coefficients, several separations have been devised, such as separation of Fe(III) from alkali and alkaline earth metals, chromium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, vanadium zirconium, thorium, uranium, yttrium and titanium.     

Liquid chromatography: a tool for the analysis of metal species

An overview is presented of classic and more recent applications of liquid chromatography for the analysis of metal species. The different approaches involving ion-exchange, ion-pair, and chelation separation mechanisms are discussed as well as the new philosophy of simply removing interferents before specific detections of metal ions (alkali and alakaline earths, rare earths, heavy and transition metals). New more selective materials enabling difficult separations and studies on multimodal or hyphenated techniques for metal speciation (e.g. arsenic and chromium) are considered.     

An improved method for isolation and purification of sedimentary porphyrins by high-performance liquid chromatography for compound-specific isotopic analysis

We describe an improved method for purification of sedimentary vanadyl and nickel porphyrins (i.e., naturally occurring metalloalkylporphyrins). For the purpose of compound-specific isotopic analyses, various sedimentary porphyrins were purified from the complex natural mixtures by the dual-step high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. The high-sample-capacity reversed-phase HPLCs by adding N,N-dimethylformamide to the mobile phase allow an efficient collection of fractions containing the target compounds even using analytical-scale columns. Furthermore, this method achieved improved chromatographic resolutions but significantly reduced the overall retention time down to 60% compared with the previous work. The target compounds were then isolated with the normal-phase HPLC with the baseline-resolution, which is necessary to avoid chromatographic isotopic fractionation. One of the advantages of this method is that it requires neither derivatization nor demetallation. The purity of these isolated compounds was demonstrated by various HPLC online detection methods utilizing a photodiode-array detector, a mass selective detector. The overall recoveries of Ni porphyrin, VO porphyrin, and porphyrin-free base, respectively, were estimated to be approximately 50-60%, 65%, and 85%.     

An attempt to differentiate HPLC-ICP-MS selenium speciation in natural and selenised Agaricus mushrooms using different species extraction procedures

Total determination and speciation analysis of Se in commercial and selenised Agaricus mushrooms have been performed to investigate the Se species naturally occurring in non-enriched mushrooms as well as those present in specimens grown in a Se-enriched medium. Mushroom aqueous and enzymatic extracts have been analysed by three complementary chromatographic separation mechanisms (size-exclusion, anion-exchange and reversed-phase) coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer with an octopole reaction system. Post-column isotope dilution analysis has been used on-line with the separations for quantification of the Se species eluted. The ⁷⁸Se-to-⁷⁷Se isotope ratio was monitored after adequate corrections for both total determinations and Se species quantitative speciation. The results showed marked differences not only in total Se contents but also in Se species found in the two types of Agaricus mushrooms investigated. Selenomethionine was detected in both of them (free in commercial mushrooms and incorporated into proteins in selenised ones) together with a number of unknown selenocompounds.     

Observation of vanadyl porphyrins and sulfur-containing vanadyl porphyrins in a petroleum asphaltene by atmospheric pressure photonionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry

Vanadyl (VO) porphyrins and sulfur-containing vanadyl (VOS) porphyrins of a wide carbon number range (C(26) to C(52)) and Z-number range (-28 to -54) were detected and identified in a petroleum asphaltene by atmospheric pressure photonionization (APPI) and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS). APPI provides soft ionization of asphaltene molecules (including VO and VOS porphyrins), generating primarily molecular ions (M(+.)). The ultra-high mass resolving power (m/Delta m(FWHM) approximately 500 K) of FTICR-MS enabled resolution and positive identification of elemental formulae for the entire family of VO and VOS porphyrins in a complicated asphaltene matrix. Deocophylerythro-etioporphyrin (DPEP) is found to be the most prevalent structure, followed by etioporphyrins (etio)- and rhodo (benzo)-DPEP. The characteristic Z-distribution of VO porphyrins suggests benzene and naphthene increment in the growth of porphyrin ring structures. Bimodal carbon number distributions of VO porphyrins suggest possible different origins of low and high molecular weight species. To our knowledge, the observation of VOS porphyrins in a petroleum product has not previously been reported. The work is also the first direct identification of the entire vanadyl porphyrin family by ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry without chromatographic separation or demetallation.     

Principle and Potential of Gradient Elution in Planar Chromatography

It was the intention of this paper to show some recent developments in thin layer chroma-togrphy aiming at increasing the separation efficiency by instrumental means and techniquesusing existing separation layers. Gradient elution in the normal phase is a most efficient wayto achieve this goal. Multi-dimensional separations by coupling gradient elution column liquid chromatography inthe reversed phase with AMD gradient elution in normal phase is suitable to achieve newdimensions of separation numbers. Assuming that the N numbers reported for HPLC translateinto separation numbers near 100, by coupling the two kinds of chromatography, separationnumbers around 500 become practically usable.     

Mass spectrometry based analysis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleobases—application to feed supplements

In this work, accurate MS-based methods for quantitative profiling of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleobases in yeast extracts used as additives in animal feedstuff are presented. Reversed-phase chromatography utilizing a stationary phase compatible with 100% aqueous mobile phases resulted in superior analytical figures of merit than HILIC or ion-pair reversed-phase separation. The novel separation method was combined with both molecular and elemental mass spectrometry. By use of RP-LC-MS-MS, excellent limits of detection <1 μmol L(-1) could be obtained for all the compounds investigated. The elemental speciation analysis approach enabled determination of nucleotides by phosphorus detection. Sensitivity of LC-ICP-MS was 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than that of LC-MS-MS. Quantitative analysis of yeast products using complementary MS detection furnished values in good agreement.     

Trace element speciation in largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides) from a fly ash settling basin by liquid chromatography-ICP-MS

Analytical techniques used to examine the chemical speciation of multiple trace elements are important for the investigation of biological systems. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to ICP-MS was used to investigate the speciation of Se, As, Cu, Cd and Zn in tissue extracts from a largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) collected from a coal fly ash basin and results were compared to a largemouth bass collected at a reference site. Using a Biosil SEC column, with an effective separation range of 100-7 KDa, Cu, Zn and Cd were shown to be bound to metallothionein (MT) in the liver, gill and, to a lesser extent, gonad tissue extract. In liver, muscle and gill of the ash basin bass, Se was predominantly present as low molecular weight species. Only in the gonad extract was the major fraction of Se associated with high molecular weight species. For the liver and gill extracts, further SEC-ICP-MS on a column with an effective separation range of 7000-500 Da was performed, but Se species still eluted near the total volume of the column suggesting a low molecular weight organic or inorganic species. Ion chromatography (IC)-ICP-MS using an AS7 column and HNO(3) gradient elution indicated that the Se and As species in the liver and gill extracts had similar retention times but these retention times did not correspond to retention times for As(III), As(V), dimethylarsenate, arsenobetaine, Se(IV), Se(VI), seleno-methionine, or seleno-cystine.