Determination of arsenic compounds in beverages by high-performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Arsenic compounds including arsenous acid (As(III)), arsenic acid (As(V)), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). A Hamilton PRX-100 anionic-exchange column and a pH 8.5 K(2)HPO(4)/KH(2)PO(4) 5.0x10(-3)molL(-1) mobile phase were used to achieve arsenic speciation. The separation of arsenic species provided peaks of As(III) at 2.75min, DMA at 3.33min, MMA at 5.17min and As(V) at 12.5min. The detection limits, defined as three times the standard deviation of the lowest standard measurements, were found to be 0.2, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5ngmL(-1) f…