Measurement of strontium isotope ratio in nitric acid extract of peanut testa by ICP-Q-MS after removal of Rb by extraction with pure water

The difference in the distributions of Sr and Rb in peanut seeds was utilized to develop a precise method for Sr isotope ratio measurement by inductively coupled plasma quadruple mass spectrometry (ICP-Q-MS). The testa instead of the whole peanut seed was selected as the sample because apparent enrichment of Sr in comparison to Rb was found in the testa. Furthermore, Rb in the testa was removed by pure water extraction with the aid of sonication to remove the isobaric interference in Sr isotope ratio measurement. The testa taken from one peanut seed was treated as one sample for the analysis. After optimization of the operating conditions, pure water (10 mL for each sample) extraction in 30 min with sonication was able to remove over 95% of Rb in the testa, while after the Rb removal Sr could be completely extracted using 10 mL of 0.3 mol L−1 HNO3 for each sample. The integration time in ICP-Q-MS measurement was optimized to achieve a lower measurement uncertainty in a shorter time; the results showed that 1 s was required and enough for the precise measurement of Sr isotope ratios giving a relative standard uncertainty (n=10) of ca. 0.1%. The present method was applied to peanut seeds grown in Japan, China, USA, India, and South Africa.