Speciation of antimony(III) and antimony(V) using hydride generation inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry combined with the rate of pre-reduction of antimony

Abstract Antimony(III) and antimony(V) were speciated by hydride generation inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (HG–ICP-AES) based on the pre-reduction kinetics of antimony(V) to antimony(III) with l -cysteine. A linear relationship between the reduced amount of antimony(V) with 3 mg ml −1 of l -cysteine and the reaction time was achieved within 10 min. The reduced amount of antimony(V) were determined after 2 and 8 min, respectively, by using HG–ICP-AES in this method. Mutual interferences of antimony(III) and antimony(V) were investigated. Interferences from transition metals were removed by a Chelex 100 resin column. The method was successfully applied to speciate antimony(III) and antimony(V) in spiked water samples. The detection limits of the method for antimony(III) and antimony(V) were 1.2 and 4.5 ng ml −1 , respectively.