Graphene oxide as a stationary phase for speciation of inorganic and organic species of mercury, arsenic and selenium using HPLC with ICP-MS detection.

This work demonstrates the power of graphene and graphene oxide (GO) as stationary phases for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) based elemental speciation analysis combined with detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Inorganic mercuric and organomercuric compounds coordinate with 2-thiosalicylic acid (TSA) to form Hg-TSA complexes. These complexes are retained by GO owing to its strong π electron stacking capability for TSA. Separation of the four mercury species tested was achieved within 12 min with resolutions of 1.8-3.4. Similarly, inorganic anionic species of arsenic and selenium, and organoarsenicals are electrostatically attracted by aromatic quaternary ammonium cations in the mobile phases. Organoarsenicals also can be separated by using long alkyl quaternary ammonium compounds. Aromatic quaternary ammonium compounds possess particularly high affinity to GO because of strong π interaction. This leads to effective retention of the As/Se anions. A comparison between graphene and GO as stationary phases for HPLC separation of mercury and arsenic species demonstrates negligible difference. Arsenic species are separated within 32 min, and selenium species are achieved within 20 min. The mobile phase also allows efficient separation of iodate, iodide, bromate, bromide, chromic acid and chromate. Analysis of a certified fish tissue by HPLC-ICP-MS using the GO@SiO2 column demonstrates its feasibility for routine elemental analysis. Good agreement is found between experimental results and certified values, with recoveries ranging between 92 and 96%. Graphical abstract Graphene oxide as a stationary phase for high performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric detection (HPLC-ICP-MS) in speciation analyses of mercury, arsenic, selenium, iodine, bromine and chromium is achieved for the first time.