Determination of bromate in drinking waters using low pressure liquid chromatography/ICP-MS

Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry Pub Date: 2013-10-04 DOI: 10.1039/C2JA30323J

Abstract

This paper describes a user-friendly method for bromate determination that can be implemented easily on any inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer present in drinking water laboratories. The method uses low pressure liquid chromatography coupled to an ICP-quadrupole mass spectrometry instrument (ICP-QMS) or an ICP-sector field mass spectrometry instrument (ICP-SFMS) and is compared to that relying on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to an ICP-QMS instrument. The low pressure LC/ICP-MS method uses a low-pressure delivery six-port valve and a 5 cm anion exchange column, which allows a fully resolved separation of bromate in 13 min and achieves a limit of quantification of 0.2 μg bromate L?1. The low pressure LC system is small and easy to install and its operation is fully integrated within the ICP-MS software. The method allows fit-for-purpose assessment of bromate, potentially present as a Br-containing disinfection by-product in drinking water, and meets all performance characteristic requirements set by the European Council for the monitoring of the quality of water intended for human consumption. A median bromate concentration of 0.5 μg L?1 was obtained for 80 tap water samples collected during regulatory monitoring campaigns from 2009 until 2012 and covering different water supply areas in the Flemish region of Belgium.

Graphical abstract: Determination of bromate in drinking waters using low pressure liquid chromatography/ICP-MS
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