Speciation of Antimony(III) and Antimony(V) in Bottled Water by Hydride Generation-Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry

Abstract

Speciation of Sb(III) and Sb(V) was investigated using hydride generation with the selective formation of stibine from Sb(III). A continuous flow system using a homemade gas-liquid separator with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was employed. The conditions and concentrations of NaBH4, HCl, citric acid, and KI were optimized to obtain limits of detection of 0.05 for Sb(III) and 0.11 µg L−1 for total Sb without preconcentration. An attractive sampling rate of 26 analyses h−1 was obtained, suggesting application for routine analysis. The method was employed for the determination of Sb(III) and total Sb in bottled drinking water, and recovery values between 82.0 and 98.8% with relative standard deviation lower than 6.2% were observed, demonstrating appropriate accuracy and precision.