Determination of inorganic species of Sb and Te in cereals by hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry

A non-chromatographic fast, sensitive and easy method has been developed for the determination of Sb(III), Sb(V), Te(IV) and Te(VI) in cereal samples. The procedure is based on ultrasound assisted extraction and determination by hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG AFS). Preliminary studies were made in order to get the best extraction efficiency using 1 mol L-1 phosphoric acid, 1 mol L-1 nitric acid, aqua regia, 1 mol L-1 sulfuric acid and 6 mol L-1 hydrochloric acid. The extraction with aquaregia showed a clear interconversion of the species during the process, being H2SO4 the best extractant with efficiencies greater than 90% from the total content of Sb and Te quantified previously and without species interconversion. This point was checked by recovery experiments at different spiked levels. The method provided limits of detection values from 0.1 to 0.5 ng g-1 with relative standard deviation values from 5.4 to 9.2% of 10 independent analysis of samples containing few ng g-1 of Sb and Te species.