Speciation of antimony(III), antimony(V) and trimethylstiboxide by ion chromatography with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric and mass spectrometric detection

An analytical method for the separation and determination of Sb(III), Sb(V) and Trimethylstiboxide (TMSbO) using ion chromatography with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric (IC-ICP-AES) and mass spectrometric detection (IC-ICP-MS) was developed. The optimum conditions for the separation of the species were established using atomic emission spectrometry as detector. Best results are obtained with a strong anion exchange column using phthalic acid or 4-hydroxybenzoic acid. Then the chromatographic system was coupled with ICP-MS to improve the detection limits. The detection limits were 300 pg, 50 pg, 60 pg per 100 μL sample for Sb(III), Sb(V) and TMSbO, respectively. The proposed method was applied to surface water samples and soil extracts.