Determination of Trace Migratory Chromium(VI) in Toys by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

A method for determinating trace migratory chromium(VI) in toys by hyphenated technique of high performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) has been developed in this article. The chromium species Cr(III) and Cr(VI) were separated on an Dionex AS19 analysis column using ammonium nitrate as the mobile phase with pH 7.4 at flow rate 1.0 mL/min. And the chromatographic separation was increased as the concentration of mobile phase was decreased. This method was easy to operate and with remarkably high sensitivity. The detection limit was found to be 0.02 mu g/L of Cr(VI) for 100 mu L injection volume in He collision cell mode of mass spectrometry. The spiked recoveries were at the range of 98.8%-104.2% and 96.3%-100.4% for the spiked levels of 0.50 mu g/L and 5.00 mu g/L respectively, and the RSDs were less than 4.2%, which met the determination requirements. This method has been used to determine migratory Cr(VI) in accessible parts of toys, including coating, plastic, wood and textile. The results were satisfactory.