Simultaneous determination of trace concentrations of arsenic, antimony, bismuth, selenium and tellurium in aqueous solution by introduction of the gaseous hydrides into an inductively coupled plasma source for emission spectrometry. Part I. Preliminary studies

Abstract

A method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of arsenic, antimony, bismuth, selenium and tellurium by generation of their gaseous hydrides and introduction of these hydrides into an inductively coupled plasma source where the atomic line emission from the elements is detected. The effect of different plasma-torch assemblies on the detection limits attainable has been studied and suitable compromise conditions have been established for the simultaneous generation of the hydrides of the analyte elements and their determination by optical emission spectrometry in the plasma source. Detection limits of 1 ng ml^–1 or below for aqueous solutions of the elements studied have been obtained under the conditions employed to allow their determination in samples of interest in geochemistry.