Pressurized liquid extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry for arsenic and selenium speciation in atmospheric particulate matter

This paper describes the development of a chelating solvent-based pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) method for the simultaneous extraction of As and Se species (As(III), As(V), Se(IV) and Se(VI)) in atmospheric particulate matter (PM10). The extracted As and Se species were evaluated by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPLC-HG-AFS). The feasibility of several pressurized chelating solvents was recently investigated to leach As and Se species from atmospheric particulate matter. The best results (high recoveries) were obtained when using EDTA. Experimental design approaches were used to achieve the best compromise conditions for the simultaneous extraction of As and Se species by EDTA-PLE. Analytical performances, such as limits of detection (in the range of 0.01–0.02 ng m−3), quantification (in the range of 0.02–0.07 ng m−3), and repeatability of the over-all procedure (∼10%) were established. Finally, As and Se species were determined in several atmospheric particulate matter (PM10) samples collected in an urban area of A Coruña city (northwest coast of Spain) in 2006. In all the atmospheric particulate matter samples that were analysed, As(V) and Se(IV) (in the range of 0.17–0.60 ng m−3) were the major species found.