Analysis of antimony species – lessons learnt from more than two decades of environmental research
Birgit Daus A C and Helle Rüsz Hansen B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A UFZ – Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
B Eurofins Miljø A/S, Ladelundvej 85, 6600 Vejen, Denmark.
C Corresponding author. Email: birgit.daus@ufz.de
Birgit Daus holds a Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry from the University of Halle Wittenberg, Germany. Since 1996, she has been conducting elemental species analysis at UFZ – Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research at Leipzig, Germany. Dr Daus teaches trace and environmental analysis at the University of Leipzig and University of Freiberg. Her specialised scientific interest is the development of speciation methods for metals or metalloids in environmental samples with the aim to understand environmental processes. |
Helle Rüsz Hansen holds a Ph.D. degree in analytical chemistry from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland (2004). After a Marie Curie fellowship at the University of Crete, she worked at the University of Copenhagen and Aberdeen before joining a commercial laboratory in Denmark (Eurofins Miljø A/S) in 2012. Her research focuses on the development and application of analytical techniques suitable for obtaining information on total concentrations and speciation of metals/metalloids in a large range of samples (commercial products, environmental, and biological). |
Environmental Chemistry 13(6) 913-918 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN16028
Submitted: 6 February 2016 Accepted: 25 July 2016 Published: 29 August 2016
Environmental context. The environmental behaviour and toxicological effects of antimony depend strongly on the specific form of the element, and thus methods have been developed for measuring the various forms of antimony. These methods, applicable to quite clean samples, often fail when applied to more complex environmental samples. We discuss some of the pitfalls in determining environmental antimony forms and the resulting risk of getting the bigger picture wrong regarding antimony pollution.
Abstract. The major findings of ~20 years of research on the analysis of antimony species in environmental samples are summarised in this paper. The complex chemistry of antimonite (SbIII) as well as of antimonate (SbV) plays a major role in chromatographic speciation of these species. For simple matrices, like surface or ground-water samples, antimony redox speciation has become a routine analysis and is robust and highly reproducible, if certain aspects are taken into consideration. These aspects are the formation of a stable complex of SbIII and complex formation kinetics. Then the antimony redox species can be separated on an anion-exchange column and detected with a suitable element detector (inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) or hydride generation–atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS)) for trace analysis. The influence of complexing agents in the sample matrix, or in the eluent, on the formation of SbIII and SbV complexes and possible corruption of chromatography is discussed. This ability of antimony to form rather stable complexes also increases the risk of artefact formation during extraction of solid samples.
Additional keywords: antimonate, antimonite, HG-AFS, HPLC, ICP-MS, speciation.
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