FI-HG-ICP OES Determination of As, Bi, Sb and Se in airborne particulate matter from urban and industrial areas

MARIANELA SAVIO; PABLO H. PACHECO; RAÚL A. GIL; LUIS D. MARTINEZ; DARIA GOMEZ; PATRICIA SMICHOWSKI

Fort Myers, Florida

Conferencia; Winter conference on plasma espectrochemistry; 2010

A study was undertaken to assess the level of selected trace elements namely, As, Bi, Sb and Se inairborne particulate matter collected on ash-free glass-fibre filters from urban and industrial areas ofArgentina. For sample digestion, a simple acid treatment with HCl + HF is proposed with the aim tominimize contamination and reduce sample treatment steps. A flow injection-hydride generationsystem in combination with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was used. While,Se and Bi could be determined directly from the digest, As and Sb needed a pre-reduction with KI, andH3BO3 to avoid the interference of F ions that may cause losses via volatile compounds such as AsF3and Sb(V) complexes. Limits of detection (3s) of 0.3 ng m3 for As; 0.09 ng m3 for Bi, and 0.1 ng m3for Sb and Se were achieved. Precision resulted in better than 6.1% accuracy for all the elementsdetermined. Accuracy test was assessed by means of the certified reference material, NIST 1648 (urbanparticulate matter).