Determination of inorganic arsenic in seafood products by microwave-assisted distillation and atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A precise and accurate procedure is proposed for the determination of inorganic As in seafood products by employing microwave-assisted distillation and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The effect of the amount of HCl, the prior reduction of As^V to As^III and the different parameters that control the distillation of AsCl₃ were studied. Organoarsenic compounds are not decomposed by the microwave-assisted distillation procedure. The inorganic As was determined by hydride generation AAS. The methodology developed has a detection limit of 0.068 µg g^–1(dry mass) or 0.023 µg g^–1(wet mass) of mussel product, and a relative standard deviation of 9%. The percentage recovery for As^III was 97 ± 3% and for As^V, 100 ± 3%. The proposed procedure has been applied to the analysis of real samples of seafood products, in which the total As was also determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry.