Improvements of hydride generation for the speciation of arsenic in natural freshwater samples by HPLC-HG-AFS

Abstract

A new gas–liquid separator was used to improve the hydride generation step of a hyphenated HPLC-HG-AFS system applied to arsenic speciation studies. Optimisation of the hydride generation atomic fluorescence detection with this new device produced by SpectraFrance led to a significant improvement in performance. Absolute detection limits were as low as 5–7 pg As for the four arsenic species usually encountered in water samples: As(III), As(V), monomethylarsonic acid (MMAA) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMAA). Using a 100 µl injection volume the concentration detection limits were in the range 0.05–0.07 ng ml−1. The optimised procedure was applied to determine arsenic speciation in a wide range of natural fresh water samples.