Application of μ-TLC for speciation of inorganic arsenic by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

A novel mu-Thin layer Chromatography coupled with Laser Ablation Inductively coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry method based on Ion Imprinted Polymer (IIP) is developed for the first time in this paper which tries to investigate the separation of inorganic arsenic species in aqueous media. Surface morphology, functionality, and bulk composition of the as-synthesized copolymer were confirmed utilizing multiple techniques, such as XRD, FESEM, and FT-IR. IIP-Copolymer was combined with CaSO4, as a binder agent, that was used to prepare a thin layer chromatography plate. Subsequently, inorganic arsenic species were separated over the TLC plate based on As(V)-imprinted polymer. In the following, the plate surface was scanned via laser ablation which volatilized the inorganic arsenic species from the TLC plate and then introduced them to the ICP-MS system. The effect of some experimental conditions including pH, mobile phase composition, and IIP/CaSO4 mass ratio on the separation efficiency were also investigated. Moreover, the obtained results for the spiked inorganic arsenic species in real samples, such as Angouran, Nakhlak, and Zarshouran proved that the methods were practically applicable to speciation analysis. Under the established optimal condition, the detection limit, Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) of responses, and linear dynamic range (LDR) of the method were obtained as 0.3 mu g L-1, 3.8%, and 0.2-100 mu g L-1 for As(V) assay. The IIP-mu TLC/LA-ICP-MS has also illustrated great application perspectives for rapid and high-effective selection, characterization, and separation of ultra-trace inorganic arsenic species in environmental water samples.