Speciation analysis of organotin compounds by HPLC-ICP-MS

The toxicity of trace metals in our food, in the products we use and in the environment is an area of increasing concern. As our knowledge has grown, we have come to understand that the toxicity of these elements is highly dependent on the molecular species to which they are chemically bound. Increasingly, regulations are being written to reflect this reality. Monitoring elemental species requires analytical technology with sufficient selectivity and sensitivity to resolve and quantitate the individual species at ultratrace levels, since an individual toxic species may constitute only a fraction of an element’s total concentration in a sample. One of the most promising technologies for meeting these requirements is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) linked to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (Figure 1). This technique is especially useful in carrying out automated, high-throughput speciation analysis.1