Speciation of five arsenic species (arsenite, arsenate, MMAAV, DMAAV and AsBet) in different kind of water by HPLC-ICP-MS

A method using Ion Chromatography hyphenated to an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer has been developed to accurately determine arsenite (AsIII), arsenate (AsV), mono-methylarsonic acid (MMAAV), dimethylarsinic acid (DMAAV) and arsenobetaine (AsBet) in different water matrices. The developed method showed a high sensitivity with detection limits for each arsenic species close to 0.4 pg injected. Arsenite and arsenate were the major species found in surface and well waters, but AsBet and DMAAV were found in some surface waters, which has never been reported before, while in some natural mineral waters located in volcanic region, the arsenic content exceeded the maximal admissible arsenic content by European legislation standards and the predominant form was AsV.