Speciation of arsenic and selenium compounds by HPLC hyphenated to specific detectors: a review of the main separation techniques.

This review deals with liquid phase separation of major arsenic and selenium species followed by element specific detection. It concerns papers published since 1980 and describing only currently used methods that were or could be applied to As and Se speciation in environmental matrices. Methods performances are compared on the basis of efficiency, rapidity, absolute and concentration detection limits and applicability to real world environmental samples.

Multielemental speciation of As, Se, Sb and Te by HPLC-ICP-MS.

An anion exchange HPLC-ICP-MS procedure allowing the simultaneous multielemental speciation analysis of arsenic, selenium, antimony and tellurium has been developed. Four arsenic species (As(III), As(V), monomethylarsonic acid and dimethylarsinic acid), two selenium species (Se(IV) and Se(VI)) may be determined in a single run as well as one antimony (Sb(V)) and one tellurium species (Te(VI)). Alternatively Sb and/or Te may be used as internal standards for As and Se speciation studies.

A methodological approach for the identification of arsenic bearing phases in polluted soils.

A methodological approach is used to characterize arsenic pollution in three soils and to determine arsenic speciation and association with solid phases in three polluted soils. HPLC-ICP-MS was used for arsenic speciation analysis, SEM-EDS and XRD for physical characterization of arsenic pollution, and sequential chemical extractions to identify arsenic distribution. Arsenic was concentrated in the finest size fractions also enriched in iron and aluminium.

Mobility and adsorption capacity of Pb and Zn in a polluted soil from a road environment: laboratory batch experiments.

A study of the mobility of lead and zinc in a contaminated soil from a road environment was conducted in order to evaluate the risk of groundwater contamination due to rainwater infiltration. The mobility of trace metals was evaluated using single chemical extractions and single-element sorption experiments. The distribution of trace metallic elements on the various soil fractions investigated with the use of sequential extractions, both before and after single extraction or sorption experiments, enabled the monitoring of changes in their localization.