Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry as a detector for micellar liquid chromatography: speciation of alkyltin compounds

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry has been used as a detector for several organotin compounds which were separated with the use of micellar liquid chromatography. Trimethyltin chloride, triethyltin bromide, and tripropyltin chloride were separated with a 0.1 M sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micellar mobile phase and C-18 stationary phase. Detection limits for the three were 27, 51, and 111 picograms tin, respectively. A 0.02 M SDS mobile phase was used to separate mono-methyltin trichloride, dimethyltin dichloride, and trimethyltin chloride. Detection limits for these compounds were 46, 26, and 126 picograms tin, respectively. Preliminary separation of those five organotin compounds was obtained by gradient elution. Calibration curves were linear over 3.5 orders of magnitude. The relative standard deviation for ten 100-μL injections containing 4 ng tin ranged from 1.3 to 1.9% with a 0.1 M SDS mobile phase and from 3.4 to 4.8% with a 0.02 M SDS mobile phase.