Speciation Analysis by IC-ICP-MS

• What is speciation analysis?
• Why is speciation important?
• How is speciation analysis performed?
• What example analytes require speciation analysis?
• What systems are available for speciation analysis?

Speciation is the process of separating and quantifying different molecular versions of a compound, which can exhibit very different physiochemical properties, including varying toxicities.

Speciation analysis has become important for food, environmental, and pharmaceutical industries, where simply measuring the total amount of an element is insufficient. Identifying the different species and concentrations of those species provides a more informed understanding of the environmental or health related impact associated with a particular sample. The clinical or environmental approach would be very different depending on the concentration of the toxic species. For example, an exposure to toxic inorganic arsenic (arsenite and arsenate) is a much bigger concern than an exposure to the mildly toxic organic arsenic species. In contrast, organic mercury species are more toxic than inorganic mercury species, so an exposure to methylmercury or ethylmercury poses a more severe health risk.

IC-ICP-MS provides a complete inorganic elemental analysis solution for speciation analysis.

• Metal-free ion chromatography (IC) separates the individual ionic species without contributing trace metal contamination
• Ion Chromatography-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (IC-ICP-MS) performs trace elemental detection and quantification

Metal-free IC (with high resolution ion exchange columns and simple online connectivity) together with high sensitivity ICP-MS and integrated software are a powerful combination for fast and efficient metal speciation.

• Complete inorganic analysis
• Arsenic
• Chromium
• Iodide
• Mercury

Any of the Thermo Scientific Dionex IC systems can be used in conjunction with the iCAP RQplus ICP-MS system.

See all configurations