Abstract
This study presents a novel method for fluorine quantification determination by microwave-induced plasma optical emission spectrometry (MIP-OES). Due to the low temperature of this plasma, atomic emission of fluorine could not be measured, instead CaF molecular emissions were measured by using a calcium solution mixed in the spray chamber with the sample using a T-piece. Several wavelengths were studied to find the best signal to noise ratio for fluorine determination and 530.45 nm was chosen. The limit of detection for the determination of fluorine via CaF using MIP-OES was 1.1 mg L−1. A linear response was observed over two orders of magnitude (R2 = 0.998). The developed method was applied to ten tea infusion samples from the UK and Saudi Arabia. The results were not significantly different (paired Student's t-test, p = 0.97) to the results obtained using the reference method, high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-GF MAS). The total fluorine in the tea infusions varied between 2.7 and 7.8 mg L−1; all of which were above the WHO recommended level of fluoride (0.8–1.5 mg L−1) in drinking water. This method can potentially be used for total fluorine determination and might be useful for fluorine speciation analysis when coupled with HPLC.
Highlights
Available microwave-induced plasma optical emission spectrometry (MIP-OES) has been used for the elemental determination of many elements including alkaline and earth alkaline metals, transi tion metals and some metalloids and non-metals, but not fluorine
The primary emission lines of the halogens are in the vacuum-UV region, fluorine is no exception with the resonance line at 95.5 nm and it is impossible to determine these elements with conventional optical instruments due to oxygen interference [1,2]
We investigated whether CaF can be used for the total fluorine determination in tea infusion without any sample preparation with this novel affordable approach using MIP-OES for total fluorine
Summary
Available microwave-induced plasma optical emission spectrometry (MIP-OES) has been used for the elemental determination of many elements including alkaline and earth alkaline metals, transi tion metals and some metalloids and non-metals, but not fluorine This technique uses a nitrogen-based plasma to excite atoms, the corre sponding emission of which is measured. To measure the levels of fluoride in food and beverage is a way to control the daily fluoride intake of a population and avoid health problems In this context, tea is a well-known source of fluoride for humans, since the plants normally used to make tea contain relatively high concentrations of fluorine [13]. The analysis was evaluated by comparing the results with the complementary method of high-resolution graphite furnace molecular mass spectrometry (HR-GF MAS)
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