Atomic fluorescence determination of inorganic arsenic in soils after microwave-assisted distillation

Abstract An inexpensive microwave-assisted distillation procedure has been developed for quantitative determination of inorganic arsenic in soils by atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS). After reduction of As(V) to its trivalent state with potassium iodide, inorganic arsenic was distilled as AsCl 3 that was finally determined by atomic fluorescence after hydride generation with NaBH 4 in HCl medium. The different parameters that control the distillation: concentration and volume of HCl, time of distillation, sample weight, and oven load, were studied. The methodology developed has a detection limit of 0.015 μg l −1 , which corresponds to a concentration of 0.006 μg of As per gram of soil,…