An Improved Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Sb, As, Bi, Ge, Se, and Te by Hydride Generation ICP-AES: Application to Environmental Samples

摘要

A method is described for the simultaneous determination of , antimony, arsenic, bismuth, germanium, selenium, and tellurium, which.combines an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission detection system with a continuous-flow hydride generation technique (HG-ICP). Compromise conditions are established. The sample, in 6 mol/L hydrochloric acid, is mixed with a 0.5% (m/v) sodium tetrahydroborate solu-tion, and a 7.5% (m/v) potassium iodide solution before being , pumped to a gas/liquid separator fromwhich the gaseous hydride is transported to the plasma by an argon flbw. Detection limits of 0.3,1.3, 0.7, 3.9,0.6, and 6.5 mu g/Lwere obtained foranti-mony, arsenic, bismuth, germanium, selenium, and tellurium, respectively. These values represent improvements above and beyond those commonly found in the literature for most ele-ments for simultaneous analysis using one set of instrumental parameters.The method is applied to a series of sediment samples and validated fpr As, Sb, and Se in marine and estuarine reference materials.