Cover Page

APPLICATION OF IC-MS AND IC-ICP-MS IN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

Edited by

 

 

RAJMUND MICHALSKI

Institute of Environmental Engineering of Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

 

 

 

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

  1. Maria Balcerzak; Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, Noakowskiego 3, 00-664 Warsaw, Poland
  2. Klaus Fischer; Faculty VI – Regional and Environmental Sciences, Department of Analytical and Ecological Chemistry, University of Trier, Behringstr. 21, 54296 Trier, Germany
  3. Wolfgang Frenzel; Technische Universität Berlin, Strasse des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
  4. Jay Gandhi; Metrohm USA, 4738 Ten Sleep Lane, Friendswood, TX 77546, USA
  5. Adam Konrad Jagielski; Department of Metabolic Regulation, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Biochemistry, University of Warsaw, Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland
  6. Koji Kosaka; Department of Environmental Health, National Institute of Public Health, 2-3-6 Minami, Wako, Saitama 351-0197, Japan
  7. Jürgen Mattusch; Department of Analytical Chemistry, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
  8. Rajmund Michalski; Institute of Environmental Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences, M. Skłodowskiej-Curie 34, 41-819 Zabrze, Poland
  9. Michal Usarek; Department of Metabolic Regulation, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Biochemistry, University of Warsaw, Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw, Poland

PREFACE

Environmental analytical chemistry can be regarded as the study of a series of factors that affect the distribution and interaction of elements and substances present in the environment, the ways they are transported and transferred, as well as their effects on biological systems. In recent years, the importance of monitoring and controlling environmental pollutants has become apparent in all parts of the world. As a result, analysts have intensified their efforts to identify and determine toxic substances in air, water, wastewaters, food, and other sectors of our environment. The toxicological data analyses involve constant lowering of analyte detection limits to extremely low concentration levels.

Speciation analysis, understood as research into various element forms, is gaining importance in environmental protection, biochemistry, geology, medicine, pharmacy, and food quality control. It is popular because what frequently determines the toxicological properties of a compound or element is not its total content, but in many cases, it is the presence of its various forms. Elements occurring in ionic forms are generally believed to be biologically and toxicologically interactive with living organisms. Studying low analytes concentrations, particularly in complex matrix samples, requires meticulous and sophisticated analytical methods and techniques. The latest trends embrace the hyphenated methods combining different separation and detection methods. In the range of ionic compounds, the most important separation technique is ion chromatography. Since its introduction in 1975, ion chromatography has been used in most areas of analytical chemistry and has become a versatile and powerful technique for the analysis of a vast number of inorganic and organic ions present in samples with different matrices. The main advantages of ion chromatography include the short time needed for analyses, possibility of analysis of small volume samples, high sensitivity and selectivity, and a possibility of simultaneous separation and determination of a few ions or ions of the same element at different degrees of oxidation. Mass spectrometry is the most popular detection method in speciation analysis, because it offers information on the quantitative and qualitative sample composition and helps to determine analytes structure and molar masses. The access to the structural data (necessary for the identification of the already known or newly found compounds) poses a challenge for speciation analysis as higher sensitivity of detection methods contributes to the increased number of detected element forms.

Couplings of ion chromatography with MS or ICP-MS detectors belong to the most popular and useful hyphenated methods to determine different ion forms of metals and metalloids ions (e.g., Cr(III)/Cr(VI), As(III)/As(V)), as well as others ions (e.g., bromate, perchlorate). IC-MS and IC-ICP-MS create unprecedented opportunities, and their main advantages include extremely low limits of detection and quantification, high precision, and repeatability of determinations.

The intent of this book is to introduce anyone interested in the field of ion chromatography, species analysis and hyphenated methods (IC-MS and IC-ICP-MS) the theory and practice. This book should be interesting and useful for analytical chemists engaged in environmental protection and research, with backgrounds in chemistry, biology, toxicology, and analytical chemistry in general. Moreover, employees of laboratories analyzing environmental samples and carrying out species analysis might find general procedures for sample preparation, chromatographic separation, and mass spectrometric analysis.

Rajmund Michalski
Zabrze, Poland

6 February 2016