An improved method for the simultaneous determination of Sb, As, Bi, Ge, Se, and Te by hydride generation ICP-AES: Application to environmental samples

A method is described for the simultaneous determination of antimony, arsenic, bismuth, germanium, selenium, and tellurium, which combines and 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 solution, and a 7.5% (m/v) potassium iodide solution before being pumped to a gas/liquid separator from which the gaseous hydride is transported to the plasma by an argon flow. Detection limit of 0.3, 1.3, 0.7, 3.9, 0.6, and 6.5 mu g/L were obtained for antimony, 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 for As, Sb, and Se in marine and estuarine reference materials.