Direct determination of arsine in gases by inductively coupled plasma–dynamic reaction cell–mass spectrometry

Reliable determination of arsine (AsH3) in gases is of great importance due to stringent regulations associated with health, safety and environmental issues. It is, however, challenging for an analyst to determine trace airborne arsine concentrations without specifically designed collection procedures using adsorption, desorption, dissolution or impinging techniques. To circumvent such technical barrier, we have newly developed a direct analytical method, characterized by introduction of an arsine gas sample into stable plasma stream, followed by gas-phase oxidation of arsine with molecular oxygen in a dynamic reaction cell (DRC) equipped within the inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP/MS) system, followed by subsequent detection of AsO+ ion. This preliminary work used trace arsine concentrations (161 μg m−3, 322 μg m−3, and 645 μg m−3) gravimetrically prepared in N2 balance. The proposed method was optimized for the important experimental parameters such as the flow rates of the reaction gas, the arsine sample, and the carrier gas. This method was then validated by demonstrating good figure-of-merits including the low limit of detection (0.10 μg m−3), good linearity (r2 > 0.9915), low measurement uncertainty (0.66%), and high speed of analysis (<6 min). The proposed method is expected to be potentially applicable to the determination of arsine in real workplace air after appropriate modifications are made.