Direct Arsenic Determination in Exposed Embryos of Zebrafish (Danio rerio) with Zeeman Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

Author： Bryszewska Malgorzata

Publisher： Taylor & Francis Ltd

ISSN： 0038-7010

Source： Spectroscopy Letters, Vol.42, Iss.6-7, 2009-09, pp. : 363-369

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Abstract

Several methods of analysis have been evaluated for the determination of the arsenic content in zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio). The methods have been developed based on waste minimization, while sample treatment was exploited to attend the standards of clean chemistry. The ultimate goal of developing a method to directly introduce whole single embryos into the electrothermal furnace atomic absorption spectrometer (ETAAS) was accomplished after optimization of instrument parameters and matrix modifiers. The significant matrix effects due to the complexity of the sample were overcome by the use of a palladium modifier and hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizing agent to aid in the mineralization of the sample during the pyrolysis. The results obtained from this direct method for arsenic analysis were in agreement with those from more common sample preparation methods of acid digestion or ultrasonic extraction. The speed of the ultrasonic method and use of environmentally safe reagents makes this a more favorable technique than acid digestion. The single embryo direct introduction method, however, is preferred due to its ability to measure whole single samples without any sample pretreatment, and furthermore allows for evaluation of the variability of arsenic accumulation between individual samples. The ETAAS method developed has been validated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).