Antimony speciation analysis in sediment reference materials using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry

This work presents the development of suitable methodologies for determination of the speciation of antimony in sediment reference samples. Liquid chromatography with a post-column photo-oxidation step and hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry as detection system is applied to the separation and determination of Sb(III), Sb(V) and trimethylantimony species. Post-column decomposition and hydride generation steps were studied for sensitive detection with the AFS detector. This method was applied to investigate the conditions under which speciation analysis of antimony in sediment samples can be carried out. Stability studies of Sb species during the extraction processes of solid matrices, using different reagents solutions, were performed. Results demonstrate that for the extraction yield and the stability of Sb species in different marine sediment extracts, citric acid in ascorbic acid medium was the best extracting solution for antimony speciation analysis in this matrix (between 55% and 65% of total Sb was recovered from CRMs, Sb(III) being the predominant species). The developed method allows the separation of the three compounds within 6 min with detection limits of 30 ng g^-1 for Sb(III) and TMSbCl2 and 40 ng g^-1 for Sb(V) in sediment samples.