About the book
Arsenic is a metalloid element that enters the environment through natural and anthropogenic activities. All arsenic species - inorganic and organic - are toxic and provoke adverse health effects. Therefore, arsenic levels and exposures are regulated, inciting the development of appropriate analytical strategies for arsenic determination, which are mainly focused on the lowering of the detection limit of the arsenic determination and on the arsenic speciation, because of the different biological activity of the arsenic species. The most widespread method for arsenic determination, the atomic adsorption spectrometry, is not sufficiently sensitive, while the ICP spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, and X-ray fluorescence need expensive and sophisticated equipment. Furthermore, the spectrophotometric methods do not have the required sensitivity. The electrochemical methods, although economical, simple, and sensitive, have found a limited application.
This book aims to include the new strategies applied for the resolution of the main problems associated with arsenic determination: detection limit decreasing and arsenic oxidation states distinguishing.
