Determination of carboplatinum and cisplatinum by interfacing HPLC with ICP-MS using ultrasonic nebulisation

A novel HPLC technique has been developed for the determination of carboplatinum(II) and cisplatinum(II) which are used for chemotherapy. The compounds were separated by a HPLC column. The eluent was on-line nebulized into the nebuliser gas flow using ultrasonic nebulisation. The resulting aerosol was driven by the nebuliser gas stream through a 30-cm heating path, a 60-cm cooling path for desolvatisation and into the plasma of the ICP-MS. The detection was carried out on platinum mass 195Pt. Different RP C18 techniques were tested to obtain the best separation and detection results of the two platinum compounds. The solvent-generated anion exchanger method was selected as the method with the best handling and sensitivity. This technique allows a good separation of the two compounds within 3 min. The detection limits for carboplatinum and cisplatinum were 130 and 80 pg, respectively. The newly developed system has been applied to study the behaviour of the platinum species under different anion influences in aqueous solutions. These investigations are necessary for the future development of an extraction from environmental samples for the two compounds. In further experiments the distribution of the two platinum species, Na2Pt(II)Cl4 and the palladium species Na2Pd(II)Cl4 between water/sediment, water/charcoal, sewage sludge/water and the distribution in the solution after iron flocculation were investigated to plan an extraction method for the platinum species from environmental matrices.