An ionic liquid improved HPLC-ICP-MS method for simultaneous determination of arsenic and selenium species in animal/plant-derived foodstuffs

Abstract

Speciation analysis of arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) in foods is of great significance for human health. In this paper, a novel ionic liquid improved reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of six As species and four Se species. To enhance the detection sensitivity, the RP-HPLC-ICP-MS determination conditions were systematically optimized. Under the optimal conditions, good linearity ranging from 2.5 to 400 μg L⁻¹ was obtained. The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.34–0.86 μg L⁻¹ for the As species and 0.94–1.52 μg L⁻¹ for the Se species. The recoveries of the As and Se species in animal/plant-derived samples (pork, chicken, rice and wheat) were in the range of 71.5–107.5% and 70.2–123.4%, respectively. These results demonstrated that the current method is promising for the accurate quantification of the As and Se species in foods.