Publications by authors named "Hugo Pinochet"

Tributyltin and its degradation products, mono-and dibutyltin have been determined in sediments collected in some representative sites in San Vicente Bay, Chile. The organic matter contents of sediments and water collected simultaneously from the same sampling sites were also determined. High levels of total organic carbon were found in sediments, especially in those from the northern part of the bay (1.

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Speciation analysis of antimony in marine biota is not well documented, and no specific extraction procedure of antimony species from algae and mollusk samples can be found in the literature. This work presents a suitable methodology for the speciation of antimony in marine biota (algae and mollusk samples). The extraction efficiency of total antimony and the stability of Sb(III), Sb(V) and trimethylantimony(V) in different extraction media (water at 25 and 90 degrees C, methanol, EDTA and citric acid) were evaluated by analyzing the algae Macrosystis integrifolia (0.

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This paper presents an improvement for the simultaneous separation of Sb(V), Sb(III) and (CH3)3SbCl2 species by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and its detection by hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS). The separation was performed on an anion exchange column PRP-X100 using a gradient elution program between EDTA/KHP (potasium hydrogen phtalate) as first mobile phase and phosphate solutions solution as the second one. The chromatographic separation and the HG-AFS parameters were optimized by experimental design.

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A method based on Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME, with a 100 mum PDMS-fiber) in combination with gas-chromatography and pulsed flame-photometric detection (GC-PFPD) has been investigated for simultaneous determination of eight organotin compounds. Monobutyltin (MBT), dibutyltin (DBT), tributyltin (TBT), monophenyltin (MPhT), and the semi-volatile diphenyltin (DPhT), triphenyltin (TPhT), monooctyltin (MOcT), and dioctyltin (DOcT) were determined after derivatization with sodium tetraethylborate. The conditions used for the extraction and preconcentration step were optimised by experimental design methodology.

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Because of the high toxicity of organotin compounds and the current regulation about their applications, analytical method usable in routine analysis is required. A speciation procedure based on NaBEt4 ethylation and GC-PFPD analysis has shown to be suitable for the organotin determination. Unfortunately, some matrix effects were observed during the analysis of harbour sediments from Chile.

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This stability of Sb(III) and Sb(V) species was studied during single extraction from soils by water. EDTA, diluted H2SO4 and H3PO4, and oxalic acid/oxalate solutions, with and without ascorbic acid, were used as stabilizing reagent of both Sb species. Antimony redox speciation in soil extracts was performed by selective hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry.

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Following our research on copper, arsenic and antimony in Chilean ecosystems, a study to understand the mobility and transport of these elements from soil to plants was carried out. So, the aim of this study, which follows on from the previous work, was to demonstrate if the total concentrations of these elements or their fractions extracted by 0.05 M EDTA pH 7 from different Chilean soils correlate with the respective total concentrations in the edible tissue of alfalfa plants collected simultaneously from 20 different sites affected or unaffected by mining activities.

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This paper reports a comparative study of the concentration of three important environmental elements that are often found together in mineral deposits and then associated with mining activities; copper, arsenic and antimony. These elements were determined in 26 different agricultural soils from regions I, II and V in Chile, zones where the most important and biggest copper industries of this country are located. As background levels of these elements in soils have not been well established, in this study, both, impacted and non-impacted agricultural soils from different regions were considered.

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A recently developed method for the determination of arsenic species (arsenite, arsenate, monomethylarsonate, MMAA, and dimethylarsinate, DMAA) has been applied to the study of arsenic speciation in plants. This method uses ion-exchange liquid chromatography coupled on-line to atomic fluorescence spectrometry through continuous hydride generation. Various extraction procedures have been studied in detail using three plant certified reference materials.

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The determination of the total concentration of selenium does not provide sufficient information about its toxicity and its bioavailability. The determination of its chemical forms is the basis for understanding the biogeochemical cycle in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and for detecting the species which might be toxic to biota. In this work we describe an analytical procedure to carry out the redox speciation of selenium present at ultratrace levels in rainwater from sites of Valparaiso region in Chile, impacted by mining activities of copper ores.

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