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Microwave-induced combustion for further determination of potentially toxic elements in honey by ICP-MS

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Abstract

Microwave-induced combustion (MIC) was proposed in this study for honey decomposition aiming for As, Cd, Hg, and Pb determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Sample mass (up to 1.0 g), absorbing solution (0.5 to 14.4 mol L−1 HNO3, and H2O), heating program, and combustion aids were evaluated. The Eurachem guidelines were used for method validation. The proposed method enabled combustion of a high sample mass (0.8 g of honey, with 0.4 g of microcrystalline cellulose and 100 µL of 6 mol L−1 NH4NO3) using 6 mL of an absorbing solution consisting of 1 mol L−1 HNO3, which resulted in low residual carbon in solution (< 25 mg L−1). Honey samples from different geographical origins were analyzed. Results showed no significant difference in comparison to other two microwave decomposition methods, based on microwave-assisted wet digestion with single reaction chamber (MAWD-SRC) and microwave-assisted wet digestion (MAWD). Standard addition experiments resulted in recoveries higher than 98%. The limits of detection ranged from 1.10 (As) to 4.60 ng g−1 (Pb). In addition to using only diluted reagents and resulting in digests virtually free of interferences, the proposed method was faster (< 30 min) than most of those presented in the literature.

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Funding

All the authors are grateful to Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Bioanalítica (INCTBio, Process Number 88887.137487/2017–00). Erico M. M. Flores and Marcia F. Mesko are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Grant Nr. 313786/2019–4, 409548/2021–9, 312271/2017–4); and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS, Grant Nr. 17/2551–0000960-6, 22/2551–0000389-3, 21/2551–0002091-1) for the support and to Coordenação de Vitória H. Cauduro, Gabriel T. Druzian, Mariele S. Nascimento, Fernanda P. Balbinot are thankful to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Finance code 001) for supporting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Vitoria H. Cauduro, Camila M. A. C. Alves, Mariele S. Nascimento, Gabriel T. Druzian & Erico M. M. Flores

  2. Centro de Ciências Químicas, Farmacêuticas e de Alimentos, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Capão do Leão, RS, 96160-000, Brazil

    Fernanda P. Balbinot & Marcia F. Mesko

Authors
  1. Vitoria H. Cauduro
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  2. Camila M. A. C. Alves
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  3. Mariele S. Nascimento
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  4. Gabriel T. Druzian
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  5. Fernanda P. Balbinot
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  6. Marcia F. Mesko
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  7. Erico M. M. Flores
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Contributions

Vitoria H. Cauduro: Writing, review and editing; writing, original draft; methodology.

Camila M. A. C. Alves: Writing, original draft; methodology; validation; formal analysis.

Mariele S. Nascimento: Methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation.

Gabriel T. Druzian: Methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation.

Fernanda P. Balbinot: Methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation.

Marcia F. Mesko: Conceptualization; writing, review and editing; supervision; funding acquisition; methodology; investigation.

Erico M. M. Flores: Conceptualization; writing, review and editing; supervision; funding acquisition; methodology; investigation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erico M. M. Flores.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest associated with this study. Marcia Foster Mesko is guest editor of the topical collection “Elemental Mass Spectrometry for Bioanalysis” in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry but was not involved in the peer review of this paper.

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Published in the topical collection Elemental Mass Spectrometry for Bioanalysis with guest editors Jörg Bettmer, Mario Corte-Rodríguez, and Márcia Foster Mesko.

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Cauduro, V.H., Alves, C.M.A.C., Nascimento, M.S. et al. Microwave-induced combustion for further determination of potentially toxic elements in honey by ICP-MS. Anal Bioanal Chem 416, 2859–2870 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-024-05235-7

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