Multielemental determination of arsenic, selenium and chromium(VI) species in water by high-performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

A new method for the simultaneous chromatographic separation and determination of arsenite, arsenate, monomethylarsonic acid, dimethylarsinic acid, selenite, selenate and hexavalent chromium in water is presented. Speciation was achieved by on-line coupling of anion-exchange LC and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Optimisation of the chromatographic conditions led to baseline separation of the seven species in 14 min using gradient elution with NH4NO3 20 mM, pH 8.7–NH4NO3 60 mM, pH 8.7 as mobile phase. Detection limits are in the range 40–60 ng l−1 for arsenic species, around 130 ng l−1 for Cr(VI), and higher for Se(IV) and Se(VI) (1.2 and 1.4 μg l−1 respectively). The method showed good accuracy and repeatability, and no interference of chloride on 75As, 77Se or 53Cr was observed. The developed method was applied to the analysis of several environmental surface water samples.