Generation of a methylbismuth species and its electrothermal vaporization for the determination of bismuth by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
Inorganic bismuth(III) was converted to a methylbismuth species, possibly trimethylbismuth, by a thermochemical reaction with methyllithium. It instantly vaporized and was then introduced into the ICP ion source to detect the 209Bi signal. Utilizing an exchangeable small sample cuvette placed on the tungsten boat furnace for the reaction was very favorable from the viewpoints of easy handling, no memory effect, and maintenance of furnace conditions. In this manner, the analyte was vaporized at quite a low temperature (150 degrees C). The detection limit (3sigma) was 0.13 pg of bismuth and the precision in relative standard deviation for 5.0 pg of bismuth was determined to be 3.8% (n = 7).
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama, Japan. Yasuaki.Okamoto@sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp
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