Determination of thallium in biological and environmental samples

Abstract

Thallium (Tl) pollution have attracted widespread attention in recent years due to is its high toxicity as well as its increasing release into the environment by human activities. Furthermore, its bioaccumulation can lead to various diseases and even death. Hence, accurate determination of Tl in biological and environmental samples is of utmost importance. This review provides an overview of analytical methods for the determination of Tl, drawing from over 200 references published mainly between 2012 and 2022. The reported methods for Tl detection include atomic emission spectrometry, atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and molecular spectroscopy. For detection of Tl in environmental and biological samples, the current trends of sample pretreatment techniques were summarized. Additionally, the speciation analysis of two wo Tl species (i.e., Tl⁺ and Tl³⁺) was also briefly discussed.

Keywords:

• Thallium
• sample pretreatment
• spectral analysis
• atomic spectrometry
• speciation

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Sichuan Science and Technology Project (No. 2022NSFSC1087) and the Project of State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials (No. sklssm2023035).