Abstract
In the last decades, an increased interest has evolved in arsenic and selenium. The aim is to understand the environmental, agricultural and biological roles of these elements. In the case of arsenic, the major reasons are the relatively high concentration of arsenic in marine biota (mg kg-1) and the arsenic contaminated drinking water bases of some Asian countries, as well as Hungary. The toxicity of higher level selenium content is also known; nevertheless, selenium is essential for several biological functions. Considering its essentialness, in our country, the insufficient selenium intake rate causes a lack of selenium. Measuring the concentrations of these elements provides crucial, but unsatisfactory information, as the speciation, i.e. the form of an element presented in a sample is also required.In both cases, the most suitable method to determine concentration is inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Our objective was to optimize the variable parameters of the ICP-MS to attain the lowest (the best) detection limit. For this purpose, we investigated the effect of parameter change on net signal intensity and relative signal intensity. With the optimized parameter settings, the limits of detection for arsenic and selenium were determined, which are 0,032 ng dm-3 for arsenic, and 0,097 ng dm-3 for selenium.
Highlights
Improved detection limits can be achieved by the evolution of element-specific analytical instruments, through which new horizons of research have been opened, especially in the fields of trace and ultra trace elements, such as arsenic and selenium.Compared to other element-specific methods, inductively coupled mass spectrometry has the best detection limits for most of elements
We investigated the effect of parameter change on net signal intensity and relative signal intensity
In the case of the wet digestion method which is used in our laboratory practice (Kovács et al, 1996), 5-fold dilution is required, whereby the overall dilution factor increases by 250 fold if one gram of solid sample was digested; our experience is that the concentration of arsenic and selenium decreases to 0,1-10 ng cm-3 level because of the attenuation (Table 1)
Summary
Improved detection limits can be achieved by the evolution of element-specific analytical instruments, through which new horizons of research have been opened, especially in the fields of trace and ultra trace elements, such as arsenic and selenium.Compared to other element-specific methods, inductively coupled mass spectrometry has the best detection limits for most of elements. Its applicability is reduced to low saline (
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