Determination of As(III), As(V), monomethylarsonic acid, dimethylarsinic acid and arsenobetaine by HPLC-ICP-MS: analysis of reference materials, fish tissues and urine.

In this study, a rapid and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) determination of primary As species in fish tissues and urine is reported. The separation was achieved on an Altima C18 column with a mobile phase containing citric acid and hexanesulfonic acid (pH 4.5). As(V), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA), As(III), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and arsenobetaine (AsB) were separated in less than 4 min with retention times of 83, 99, 130, 166 and 208 s, respectively. This separation of five species in less than 4 min should be attractive to those interested in As speciation. The quantification limits were 44, 56, 94, 64, 66 ng l(-1) and the relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) for day-to-day injections of As at 2 mug l(-1) were 2.0, 3.1, 2.4, 3.8 and 4.0%. The procedure was tested using two reference materials (DORM-2 dogfish muscle tissue, NIST SRM 2670 Freeze-dried Urine, normal level) and then applied to real-world samples. The results obtained demonstrate the suitability of the procedure for screening and quantification at physiological levels of primary As species in biological samples.