Determination of total inorganic arsenic in water using on-line pre-concentration and hydride-generation atomic absorption spectrometry
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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Determination of Inorganic Arsenic in a Wide Range of Food Matrices using Hydride Generation - Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.
Published on: September 1, 2017
Gisele G Bortoleto1, Solange Cadore
1Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Química, Caixa Postal 6154, 13.084-971 Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Abstract:
A rapid and sensitive method for the on-line separation and pre-concentration of inorganic arsenic in water samples is described. The analyte in the pentavalent oxidation state is reduced to its trivalent form with l-cysteine and the total inorganic arsenic is sorbed onto activated alumina in the acid form in a mini-column coupled to a FI-HG AAS system. Afterwards, it is eluted with 3moll(-1) HCl. An enrichment factor of 7 was obtained, allowing an analytical flow rate of about 28 determinations per hour. The limits of detection (3sigma) and of quantification (10sigma) were calculated as LOD=0.15mugl(-1) of As and LOQ=0.5mugl(-1) of As, respectively. Relative standard deviations (n=10) less than 8% were obtained for different arsenic concentrations and the accuracy was verified by analysing certified reference materials. Different kinds of samples, such as mineral water, drinking water, river water and natural spring water were analyzed and good agreement was obtained with the values from spiked experiments.
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