Element Speciation Analysis

As discussed above, ICP-IDMS is becoming a highly valuable method for trace element and element-speciation analysis. For ICP-IDMS the highly precise and accurate isotope ratio measurements that are currently required can be made by resorting to multicollector-ICP-MS. 

Pereiro, I.R., Schmitt, V.O. and Lobinski, R. (1997) Elemental speciation analysis by multi capillary gas chromatography with microwave-induced plasma atomic spectrometric detection. Anal. Client., 122, 1057-1061. 

Quevauviller, Ph. (2000) Certified reference materials a tool for quality control of elemental speciation analysis. In Elemental Speciation - New Approaches for Trace Element Analysis (eds Sutton, K.L. and Caruso, JA.). Elsevier, Amsterdam, 531-569. 

Ellis, L.A. and Roberts, D.J. (1997) Chromatographic and hyphenated methods for elemental speciation analysis in environmental media./. Chromatogr. A., 774, 3-19. 

J. Szpunar, Trace element speciation analysis of biomaterials by high performance liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric detection (HPLC-ICP MS), Trends Anal. Chem., 19 (2000), 127D137. 

Human milk can be considered the optimal food for infants. It contains all the macronutrients and micronutrients necessary for the correct development of the newborn and at the adequate levels. When infants are not breast-fed, or breastfeeding is discontinued very early, formula milks are used instead. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the capacity of formulas to deliver satisfactory quantities of minerals and trace elements that can be bioavailable to the children in order to cover their biological needs. This fact explains the need to perform trace elements speciation analysis in formula milk. Thus, the speciation results obtained in formulas and published so far are critically evaluated here and compared with those obtained in human milk. 

S. S. Kannamkumarath, Katarzyna Wrobel, Kazimierz Wrobel, C. B Hymer, J. A. Caruso, Capillary electrophoresis D inductively coupled plasmaDmass spectrometry an attractive complementary technique for elemental speciation analysis, J. Chromatogr. A, 975 (2002), 245 D 266. 

J. A. Caruso, K. L. Sutton and K. L. Ackley eds., Elemental Speci-ation. New Approaches for Trace Element Speciation Analysis , 1st edition, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2000—a comprehensive view of the anal)dical speciation and the hyphenated techniques with atomic spectrometry detection. 

The first research papers describing CE-ICP-MS were written in 1995 by the Olesik, Lopez-Avila, and Bames research groups.The coupling of the ICP-MS detector with CE and HPLC has become the dominant analysis technique for elemental speciation analysis. Elemental speciation analysis is defined as the separation, identification, and quantification of the different chemical forms (organometallic and inorganic) and oxidation states of specific elements in a given sample. Information on elemental speciation in clinical and environmental material is vital in the study of mechanisms of element transport within living as well as environmental systems. 

Alternative plasmas have been occasionally used for elemental speciation analysis, including the microwave-induced plasma (MIP), which has been reviewed in Ref. [7] and the low-power helium plasma. Both of these plasma sources have the advantage of reduced gas and power consumption over the traditional ICP however, the use of these plasmas with interfaces with CE has been... 

As mentioned in the Introduction, the main application of CE-ICP-MS is in the field generally known as elemental speciation analysis. There are a number o good reviews on elemental speciation CE advances including use MS detection the two most recent were by Kannamkumarath et al. and Timerbaev. " Worl performed in this relatively young technique is ver extensive, and only a few examples will be cited in this article. ... 

Trace element speciation analysis is a base for the description of forms and compounds in which they occur in soils. Other definitions are also used to define properties of trace elements in soils. In fact, the general term availability has been recently defined as geoavailability, geochemical availability, biogeochemical availability and bioavailability (Wolt 1994, Smith and Huyck 1999) ... 

Element speciation analysis should lead to information on speciation of the elements in a sample, reflecting the true relations in this sample. However, this aim is not easily achieved. New challenges arise concerning sampling, sample storage and prep-... 

Harms J and Schwedt G (1994) Application of capillary electrophoresis in element speciation analysis of plant and food extracts. Fresenius J Anal Chem 350 93-100. 

A representative selection of reports detailing elemental speciation analysis by GC-based methods... 

Liu YM and Cheng JK (2003) Elemental speciation analysis in capillary electrophoresis. Electrophoresis 24 1993-2012. 

Without discussion, the tools most commonly used for trace element speciation analysis nowadays are hyphenated techniques , which is the coupling of more than one technique one or more of them facilitating the separation of the various forms of the element of interest and the other for the final sensitive and selective detection of the element. The main separation methods and detectors commonly used in hyphenated or coupled techniques for speciation analysis have been summarized in Figure 3. These species separation techniques can be coupled online or offline with the detector (usually an atomic spectroscopic detector). 

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