DETERMINATION OF FOUR ARSENIC SPECIES IN ALGAE BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY COUPLED WITH HYDRIDE GENERATION ATOMIC FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY

A rapid method has been developed for the determination of silver arsenite As(III), dimethylated arsenic DMA, monomethylated arsenic MMA, and arsenate As(V) in algae sample using liquid chromatography coupled with hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (LC-HG-AFS). Types, flow rate and pH of mobile phase were optimized. Under the optimal conditions, there were good linear relationships in the range of 0 -200 µg L-1 with correlation coefficients larger than 0.9995. The limits of detection and quantification of As(III), DMA, MMA, and As(V) were 0.005- 0.010 mg kg-1 and 0.019-0.034 mg kg-1, respectively. The recoveries at three spiked levels of 0.02, 0.5 and 1.0 mg kg-1 were in the range of 93-105 % with relative standard deviations (RSD, n=6) of 3.6%-6.2%. The proposed method was successfully applied in the determinaton of four arsenic species in algae sample. The developed method is simple, higher precision, stable data collection, and shorter separation time, and could be applied in the speciation and study of arsenic species in algae.