Green analyzer for the measurement of total arsenic in drinking water: electrochemical reduction of arsenate to arsine and gas phase chemiluminescence with ozone.

We describe matrix-isolated, reaction chemistry based measurement of arsenic in water down to submicrograms per liter levels in a system that requires only air, water, electricity, and dilute sulfuric acid, the bulk of the latter being recycled. Gas phase chemiluminescence (GPCL) measurement of arsenic is made in an automated batch system with arsenic in situ electroreduced to arsine that is reacted with ozone to emit light. The ozone is generated from oxygen that is simultaneously anodically produced. Of 22 different electrode materials studied, graphite was chosen as the cathode. As(V) is reduced much less efficiently to AsH(3) than As(III). Prereducing all As to As(III) is difficult in the field and tedious. Oxidizing all As to As(V) is simple (e.g., with NaOCl) but greatly reduces subsequent conversion to AsH(3) and hence sensitivity. The rate of the AsH(3)-O(3) GPCL reaction and hence signal intensity increases with [O(3)]. Using oxygen to feed the ozonizer produces higher [O(3)] and substantial signal enhancement. This makes it practical to measure all arsenic as As(V). The system exhibits an LOD (S/N = 3) for total arsenic as As(V) of 0.36 microg/L (5 mL sample). Comparison of total As results in native and spiked water samples with those from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) and other techniques show high correlation (r(2) = 0.9999) and near unity slopes.

Measurement of soil/dust arsenic by gas phase chemiluminescence.

A gas phase chemiluminescence (GPCL)-based method for trace measurement of arsenic has been recently described for the measurement of arsenic in water. The principle is based on the reduction of inorganic As to AsH(3) at a controlled pH (the choice of pH governs whether only As(III) or all inorganic As is converted) and the reaction of AsH(3) with O(3) to produce chemiluminescence (Idowu et al., Anal. Chem. 78 (2006) 7088-7097). The same general principle has also been used in postcolumn reaction detection of As, where As species are separated chromatographically, then converted into inorganic As by passing through a UV photochemical reactor followed by AsH(3) generation and CL reaction with ozone (Idowu and Dasgupta, Anal. Chem. 79 (2007) 9197-9204). In the present paper we describe the measurement of As in different soil and dust samples by serial extraction with water, citric acid, sulfuric acid and nitric acid. We also compare parallel measurements for total As by induction coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). As(V) was the only species found in our samples. Because of chloride interference of isobaric ArCl(+) ICP-MS analyses could only be carried out by standard addition; these results were highly correlated with direct GPCL and LC-GPCL results (r(2)=0.9935 and 1.0000, respectively). The limit of detection (LOD) in the extracts was 0.36 microg/L by direct GPCL compared to 0.1 microg/L by ICP-MS. In sulfuric acid-based extracts, the LC-GPCL method provided LODs inferior to those previously observed for water-based standards and were 2.6, 1.3, 6.7, and 6.4 microg/L for As(III), As(V), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), respectively.

Liquid chromatographic arsenic speciation with gas-phase chemiluminescence detection.

We present a newly developed gas-phase chemiluminescence (CL) detection method for the separation and quantification of inorganic and organic arsenic species. Arsenite, arsenate, dimethylarsinic acid (DMA), and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) were separated by anion exchange using carbonate-bicarbonate and NaOH eluents with step-gradient elution. The separated species were passed through a UV photooxidation reactor which decomposed the organic species and converted them to inorganic As(V). Subsequent on-line hydride generation with acid and sodium borohydride produces AsH3 and H2, which are separated from the liquid in a gas-liquid separator. The produced AsH3, driven by H2, reacts with ozone in a small reflective cell located atop a photomultiplier tube, resulting in intense CL. In the present form, the limits of detection (LODs, signal-to-noise = 3), based on peak height, for arsenite, arsenate, MMA, and DMA are 0.4, 0.2, 0.5, and 0.3 microg/L, respectively, for a 100 microL injected sample. This analyzer demonstrates the robustness of the CL detection system for arsenic and provides an affordable alternative to atomic spectrometry for use as a detector after chromatographic speciation. We found no significant practical interferences.

A gas-phase chemiluminescence-based analyzer for waterborne arsenic.

We show a practical sequential injection/zone fluidics-based analyzer that measures waterborne arsenic. The approach is capable of differentiating between inorganic As(III) and As(V). The principle is based on generating AsH3 from the sample in a confined chamber by borohydride reduction at controlled pH, sparging the chamber to drive the AsH3 to a small reflective cell located atop a photomultiplier tube, allowing it to react with ozone generated from ambient air, and measuring the intense chemiluminescence that results. Arsine generation and removal from solution results in isolation from the sample matrix, avoiding the pitfalls encountered in some solution-based analysis techniques. The differential determination of As(III) and As(V) is based on the different pH dependence of the reducibility of these species to AsH3. At pH < or =1, both As(III) and As(V) are quantitatively converted to arsine in the presence of NaBH4. At a pH of 4-5, only As(III) is converted to arsine. In the present form, the limit of detection (S/N = 3) is 0.05 microg/L As at pH < or =1 and 0.09 microg/L As(III) at pH approximately 4-5 for a 3-mL sample. The analyzer is intrinsically automated and requires 4 min per determination. It is also possible to determine As(III) first at pH 4.5 and then determine the remaining As in a sequential manner; this requires 6 min. There are no significant practical interferences. A new borohydride solution formulation permits month-long reagent stability.