Pittcon Abstracts (1991)

Different forms of metals and metalloids have varying degrees of toxicity in biological systems. Because of this, there has been an increase in the research focused on the speciation of metals at trace levels. Plasma mass spectrometric detection of hydride species has been established as a viable technique for the determination of these species at trace levels. One problem with the determination of arsenic by plasma mass spectrometry is the possibility of interference from the formation of ArC1+. Since many naturally occurring samples contain chloride, direct nebulization of the sample will introduce chloride to the plasma. A possible solution to this problem is the use of hydride generation to convert the arsenic to a volatile form coupled with separation from the chloride using a membrane gas liquid separator of the type used previously.