Interferences by transition metals and their elimination by cyanide as a complexing agent in the determination of arsenic using continuous flow HG-ICP-AES

The interfering effects of various foreign ions on the determination of arsenic were studied by hydride generation inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (HG-ICP-AES). There were serious inhibiting interferences by Cu, Pb, Co, Au, Pd and Ni. However, by using cyanide as a complexing agent these interferences could be completely eliminated over a wide range of interferent concentration. The optimum chemical parameters for continuous arsine generation were studied. A major advantage of this technique is that it only needs low acid concentrations and produces less hazardous waste. Sensivity, selectivity and accuracy of the determination of arsenic by HG-ICP-AES were investigated. The detection limit (in 1 mol/l HCl medium) for arsenic(III) was 0.82 ng/ml. The relative standard deviation for ten determinations of a solution containing 50 ng/ml arsenic was 1.3%.