Arsenic speciation using HPLC-HG-ICP-AES with gas-liquid separator

Summary The determination of different chemical species of arsenic in aquatic media has been carried out using several separation and detection techniques. As separation techniques GC, HPLC, HG and cold trap-selective thermal desorption are the most frequently used. As detection techniques FAAS, ETAAS or, to a lesser extent, ICP-AES are applied. In this work the optimization conditions are presented for As(III), As(V), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) determination using (IC)HPLC coupled to HG with gas-liquid separator, and using ICP-AES as detector is presented. The gas-liquid separator impedes the entrance of mobile phase into the nebulizer and consequently into the plasma torch. The experimental conditions for HG (kind of acids and concentration, borohydride concentration, reagent flows) as well as plasma conditions have been optimized.The quality parameters: LOD, precision and accuracy are reported for all the species studied.