Sensitive and robotic determination of bromate in sea water and drinking deep-sea water by headspace solid-phase micro extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A robotic method has been established for the determination of bromate in sea water and drinking deep-sea water. Bromate in water was converted into volatile derivative, which was measured with headspace solid-phase micro extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME GC-MS). Derivatization reagent and the HS-SPME parameters (selection of fibre, extraction/derivatization temperature, heating time and; the morality of HCl) were optimized and selected. Under the established conditions, the detection and the quantification limits were 0.016 μg L(-1) and 0.051 μg L(-1), respectively, and the intra- and inter-day relative standard deviation was less than 7% at concentrations of 1.0 and 10.0 μg L(-1). The calibration curve showed good linearity with r(2)=0.9998. The common ions Cl(-), NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-), HPO(4)(2-), H(2)PO(4)(-), K(+), Na(+), NH(4)(+), Ca(2+), Mg(2+), Ba(2+), Mn(4+), Mn(2+), Fe(3+) and Fe(2+) did not interfere even when present in 1000-fold excess over the active species. The method was successfully applied to the determination of bromate in sea water and drinking deep-sea water.