Evaluation of a new dielectric barrier discharge excitation source for the determination of arsenic with atomic emission spectrometry

A low power dielectric barrier discharge excitation source was developed to determine arsenic in a cost-effective manner. Arsenic in water was reduced to AsH3 by hydride generation (HG), which was transported to the miniature dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) excitation source for excitation and optical detection at As 193.7 nm atomic line. The DBD source consists of a quartz tube, a tungsten rod electrode, and a copper coil electrode. The main operation parameters and the potential interferences affecting the determination were investigated. The detection limit for arsenic with the proposed DBD-AES was 4.8 μg L−1 when the HG products were dried with concentrated H2SO4 before introducing to DBD. Repeatability, expressed as the relative standard deviation of the spectral peak height, was 2.8% (n=11) for 0.1 mg L−1 arsenic solution. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determinations of certified reference material (GBW08605) and nature water samples.