Oxidative Trapping of Unstable Gaseous Arsines by Hydrogen Peroxide

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide was employed as an oxidizing agent for a new method for trapping unstable gaseous arsines. Resin cartridges wetted with hydrogen peroxide trapped over 90% of the gaseous arsines (arsine, methylarsine, dimethylarsine, and trimethylarsine) from laboratory samples. The oxidized products (arsenic acid, methylarsonic acid, dimethylarsinic acid, and trimethylarsine oxide) are relatively stable in Milli-Q water, so they could be extracted from the cartridges and analyzed by liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry at nanogram per milliliter concentrations. We also used our new method to determine arsine concentrations in field samples from Nishinomaki mine and Tamagawa hot spring in Japan. Inorganic arsine was detected at the highest concentration for each sampling point, and trimethylarsine was observed in the Nishinomaki mine and at one sampling site of the Tamagawa hot spring. This trimethylarsine may have been produced by a variety of microorganisms.

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Keywords:

• Arsine
• Dimethylarsine
• Gaseous arsine
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Methylarsine
• Trimethylarsine

Notes

<: Detection limit.

^a Soil (1 g) was extracted with 10 mL of Milli-Q water by shaking for 6 hours; observed arsenic content is reported as ng of arsenic (ng-As) per gram of soil (g).

^b Percent recovery was calculated from total concentrations by LC-ICP-MS and from total arsenics by ICP-OES.