Separation and Determination of Volatile Hydrides by Gas Chromatography with a Gold Gas-Porous Electrode Detector

The gaseous hydrides of As(III), Sn(II), and Sb(III) were generated by sodium borohydride reduction. The hydrides were swept from solution onto a Porapak Q column where they were separated and detected at a gold gas-porous electrode by measurement of the respective electrooxidation currents. Detection limits for 5-mL samples were: As(III) (0.2 ppb); Sn(II) (0.8 ppb); Sb(III) (0.2 ppb).