Sample pre-treatment to eliminate cationic methylated arsenic for determining arsenite on an anion-exchange column by high performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Co-elution of cationic methylated arsenic, e.g. arsenobetaine may interfere with the determination of arsenite on the Hamilton PRP-X100 anion-exchange column using a phosphate buffer isocratically. Therefore, a sample pre-treatment method with self-packed AG MP-50 cation-exchange cartridges was proposed, which enables the arsenite determination in samples containing arsenobetaine on a PRP-X100 column using a phosphate buffer (pH 5.6) isocratically. Methylated arsenic, including dimethylarsinic acid, trimethylarsine oxide, tetramethylarsonium ion, arsenobetaine and arsenocholine, with concentrations below 1000 μg As L−1, may be completely retained in the AG MP-50 cartridge without any changes of arsenite, arsenate and monomethylarsonic acid speciation. Such retention was independent of the pH and matrix. It is proposed to be based on hydrophobic interaction. With the help of AG MP-50 cartridges, 11 arsenic species were detected in fish (DORM-2), mussels (BCR-477) and red algae (Porphyra tenera) in 10 min on the PRP-X100 column using a phosphate buffer isocratically. Arsenite was the only minor species (up to 0.9%) among all water extractable arsenic species in fish, mussel and red algae.