Speciation analysis of tellurium by solid-phase extraction in the presence of ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Under acidic conditions tellurium(IV) formed a complex with ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC). The tellurium(IV) complex was completely retained on a non-polar Isolute silica-based octadecyl (C(18)) sorbent-containing solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge, while the uncomplexed Te(VI) passed through the cartridge and remained as a free species in the solution. Only partial Te(IV) was retained on the SPE cartridge for samples without addition of APDC. On the basis of different retention behaviours of the complexed Te(IV) and uncomplexed Te(VI), a simple and highly sensitive method is proposed for the determination of total tellurium and Te(VI) by SPE separation and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) detection. The Te(IV) concentration was calculated as the difference between total tellurium and Te(VI) concentrations. The detection limit (3 sigma) is 3 ng L(-1) tellurium. Factors affecting the separation and detection of tellurium species were investigated. Coexisting ions did not show significant interferences with the Te(IV)-APDC complex retention and the subsequent ICP-MS detection of Te. The method has been successfully applied to the tellurium speciation analysis in waters with spiked recoveries for Te(IV) and Te(VI) of 86.0-108% and 87.1-97.4%, respectively.