Inorganics in organics: quantification of organic phosphorus and sulfur and trace element speciation in natural organic matter using HPLC-ICP-MS

• Published in: Analytical Chemistry
• Main Authors: Lechtenfeld, Oliver J., Koch, Boris P., Geibert, W., Ludwichowski, Kai-Uwe, Kattner, Gerhard
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: ACS Publications 2011
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/25557/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.38662

A method is presented for the chemical characterization of natural organic matter (NOM). We combined reversed-phase chromatographic separation of NOM with high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. A desolvation technique was used to remove organic solvent derived from the preceding chromatographic separation. We applied our method to solid-phase extracted marine dissolved organic matter samples from South Atlantic and Antarctic surface waters. The method provided a direct and quantitative determination of dissolved organic phosphorus and sulfur in fractions of differing polarity and also allowed simultaneous speciation studies of trace elements. Dissolved organic carbon/phosphorus and carbon/sulfur ratios for the different chromatographic fractions of our two samples ranged between 341–3025 for C/P and 11–1225 for C/S. Differences in elemental distribution between the fractions were attributed to different biochemical environments of the samples. Sulfur was exclusively found in one hydrophilic fraction, while uranium showed a strong affinity to the hydrophobic fractions. Our method was designed to be easily adapted to other separation techniques. The elemental information will deliver valuable information for ultrahigh resolution molecular analyses.