Iva Urbanová

Analytical capabilities of inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ICP-oa-TOF-MS) for multi-element analysis of food and beverages

Analytical capabilities of ICP-oa-TOF-MS for rapid, simultaneous and reliable determination of more than 50 major, trace and ultra-trace elements in different food and beverages samples (milk and dairy based products, cereals, meat, offal, sugar and sugar products, potatoes, fats, baby food samples, fruit juices, alcoholic beverages), following microwave closed vessel digestion of samples, were described. Under optimum instrumental conditions, and by using Rh as an internal standard and an external calibration method, ICP-oa-TOF-MS enables an accurate analysis, taking about one minute per a sample for all elements and isotopes of interest even for some elements such Zn, Ni, Cu, As or Co whose assay is more difficult when using conventional quadrupole instruments. In order to verify the accuracy and precision of the proposed method, 8 commercially available reference materials representing 3 major groups of food (milk and dairy based products, meat, cereals) were analysed, yielding results in agreement with certified values and the precision bellow 15%. In addition, accuracy was confirmed by spiked analytical recoveries study and accurate isotopic ratio determinations with the precision typically better than 5% with 5s data acquisition period, also for other elements of interest whose content was not certified and different sample matrices. Limits of detection (3σ) have varied from 0.04ngg(-1) for Th to 1630ngg(-1) for Ca.

Multi-element analysis of milk by ICP-oa-TOF-MS after precipitation of calcium and proteins by oxalic and nitric acid.

In this work a simple technique employing oxalic and nitric acid to cows milk samples prior to analysis by inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ICP-oa-TOF-MS) was introduced. After the precipitation of calcium and proteins via oxalic and nitric acid, respectively, the resulting liquid phase was aspirated with a concentric glass nebulizer for ICP-TOF-MS determination of trace elements. Precipitation of proteins is essential for better separation of solid and liquid phase of modified samples. Separation of calcium as a precipitated non-soluble oxalate enables the elimination of spectral interferences originating from different calcium containing species like (40)Ca(35)Cl(+), (40)Ca(37)Cl(+), (43)Ca(16)O(+), (40)Ca(18)O(+), (44)Ca(16)O(+), (43)Ca(16)O(1)H(+) onto the determination of As, Se, Co and Ni whose assay is more difficult when using conventional quadrupole instruments. High detection capability is further an advantage as the approach enables the analysis without dilution. The methodology may serve, in addition, for a fast and sensitive determination of some other elements. After that, direct, reliable and simultaneous determination of 16 elements (Li, Be, B, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, Ga, As, Se, Mo, Sn, Sb, Cs, Tl) at trace and ultra-trace levels in milk can be performed under optimum instrumental conditions and by using Rh as an internal standard. Accuracy and precision was assessed by measuring NCS ZC73015 milk powder control standard, yielding results in agreement with certified values and RSD <10%. The accuracy was also checked by comparison of the results of the proposed method with those found by a method based on a microwave-assisted digestion of real samples.

Evaluation of ammonium fluoride for quantitative microwave-assisted extraction of silicon and boron from different solid samples

A novel, simple, efficient and environmentally friendly closed-microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) method of silicon and boron from a variety of industrial and environmental samples using ammonium fluoride as an extractant was developed. This method avoids handling the corrosive and toxic HF and prevents the potential risk of analyte loss due to the creation of volatile SiF4 and BF3 in the presence of HF. Atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry were employed for the subsequent analysis of the resulting supernatant for determination of Si and B, respectively. Certified reference material BCR®-032 Natural Moroccan Phosphate Rock (phosphate fertiliser) was taken to optimise the extraction parameters such as the sample amount, extraction temperature and time and the volume of the extractant. The optimum extraction parameters evaluated using a fractional factorial design were as follows: 50 mg of the sample extracted with 5 mL of 100 g L−1 NH4 F for 15 min at 180°C. The optimised MAE procedure was successfully applied to nine different matrix reference materials intended primarily for validation of methods for determination of components in fertilisers, sludge, plants and fly ash. The obtained results were in a good agreement with the certified or comparative values with an overall precision better than 10% in all cases. The proposed method is recommended for fast and reliable preparation of samples with silicon content <8.2% (w/w). However, further decreasing the sample mass to 10 mg enabled the quantitative extraction of silicon from fly ashes at levels of 23% (w/w).

Multi-elemental analysis of sulfuric acid by oaTOF-ICP-MS after matrix modification with barium bromide

In this work a novel method for the simultaneous multi-elemental analysis of sulfuric acid by inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (oaTOF-ICP-MS) after matrix modification with barium bromide was introduced. For this purpose sample aliquots consisting of 10% (w/w) sulfuric acid were mixed with barium bromide and after the precipitation of sulfates, the resulting liquid phase was aspirated with a concentric glass nebulizer for TOF-ICP-MS determination. The separation of sulfur as a precipitated non-soluble barium sulfate enables the elimination of spectral interferences originating from different sulfur containing species like SN+, SNH+, SO+, SOH+, SOH2+, SCO+, SNOH+, SO2+, S2+, SO2H+, or S2H+ on the determination of e.g. Ti, Zn, Ge, and Cu. After that, direct, reliable, and simultaneous determination of 15 elements (Be, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, Sn, Sb, and Te) at trace and ultra-trace levels in sulfuric acid were performed under optimum instrumental conditions and by using Rh as an internal standard. Accuracy and precision were assessed by analysing sulfuric acid and by comparison of the results of the proposed method with those obtained by the high resolution ICP-MS method. The results of both methods were in good agreement for Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, and As. The accuracy for all of the 15 elements was also checked by an analytical recovery study. The reported method has a precision greater than 12.5%.

Slurry sampling high-resolution continuum source electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for direct beryllium determination in soil and sediment samples after elimination of SiO interference by least-squares background correction

In this work a simple, efficient, and environmentally-friendly method is proposed for determination of Be in soil and sediment samples employing slurry sampling and high-resolution continuum source electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-ETAAS). The spectral effects originating from SiO species were identified and successfully corrected by means of a mathematical correction algorithm. Fractional factorial design has been employed to assess the parameters affecting the analytical results and especially to help in the development of the slurry preparation and optimization of measuring conditions. The effects of seven analytical variables including particle size, concentration of glycerol and HNO3 for stabilization and analyte extraction, respectively, the effect of ultrasonic agitation for slurry homogenization, concentration of chemical modifier, pyrolysis and atomization temperature were investigated by a 27-3 replicate (n = 3) design. Using the optimized experimental conditions, the proposed method allowed the determination of Be with a detection limit being 0.016mgkg-1 and characteristic mass 1.3pg. Optimum results were obtained after preparing the slurries by weighing 100mg of a sample with particle size < 54µm and adding 25mL of 20% w/w glycerol. The use of 1μg Rh and 50μg citric acid was found satisfactory for the analyte stabilization. Accurate data were obtained with the use of matrix-free calibration. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by analysis of two certified reference materials (NIST SRM 2702 Inorganics in Marine Sediment and IGI BIL-1 Baikal Bottom Silt) and by comparison of the results obtained for ten real samples by slurry sampling with those determined after microwave-assisted extraction by inductively coupled plasma time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-ICP-MS). The reported method has a precision better than 7%.

Simultaneous Determination of 11 Elements in Fly Ash by Inductively Coupled Plasma Orthogonal Acceleration Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry After Closed-Vessel Microwave-Assisted Extraction with Ammonium Fluoride

A method for simultaneous multi-element analysis of fly ash samples by inductively coupled plasma orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (oaTOF-ICP-MS) after closed-vessel microwave extraction with ammonium fluoride was introduced here. Corrosive and/or toxic acids like HF, HCl or HClO4, as well as HNO3, which are commonly used during sample preparation of the fly ash samples, are avoided in this method. The spectral effects due to the formation of different Cl, Na, K, Ca, Mg-containing polyatomic species interfering with the determination of a number of elements like As, Se or Ni during the oaTOF-ICP-MS analysis are negligible. Under the optimum experimental extraction conditions evaluated using a fractional factorial design (10 mg of the sample extracted with 5 mL of 140 g/L NH4F for 10 min at 200°C), analysis of the resulting supernatant with Rh as an internal standard enabled precise and accurate simultaneous determination of 11 elements (Li, Be, Ni, As, Se, Rb, Sb, Cs, W, Tl and U) at trace and ultratrace levels. The accuracy was assessed by analysing two certified reference materials, namely Fine Fly Ash CTA-FFA-1 and Constituent Elements in Coal Fly Ash Standard Reference Material® 1633b. The precision of the reported method was better than 10%.