A Novel Sample Introduction Technique for the Simultaneous Determination of As, Se, Ge and Hg in Chinese Medicinal Material

A novel technique of Moveable Reduction Bed Hydride Generator(MRBHG) was applied to the hydride generation or cold vapor generation of As, Se, Ge, and Hg existing in Traditional Chinese Medicinal Material(TCM). The simultaneous determination of the multi-elements was performed with ICP-MS. A solid reduction system involving the use of potassium tetraborohydride and tartaric acid was applied to generating metal hydride or cold vapor efficiently. The factors affecting the metal cold vapor generation were studied. The main advantage of the technique is that only a 4 μL volume of sample was required for the cold vapor generation. The absolute detection limits of all the elements studied are in 10-12 g level.