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A new method for simultaneous measurement of 71 inorganic elements in
liquids—including water, beverages, and biological fluids—makes element
testing much faster, more efficient, and more comprehensive than was
possible in the past.
The researchers studied samples of liquid from a variety of sources
worldwide, including tap water from a New York City suburb, snow from
Italy and Croatia, rain from Brazil and Pakistan, lake water from
Switzerland and Croatia, and seawater from Japan and Brazil. Testing each
sample results in a distinct elemental pattern, creating a "fingerprint"
that can help differentiate between substances or trace a liquid back to
its environmental origin.
The method—developed by researchers at the isotope laboratory of NYU
College of Dentistry and described in the journal RSC Advances, published
by the Royal Society of Chemistry—may be used to explore and understand
the distribution of inorganic elements beyond the few that are typically
measured. It has implications for fields such as nutrition, ecology and
climate science, and environmental health.
An analytical technique called inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry (ICP-MS) is used to measure elements. Historically, ICP-MS
instruments have measured elements sequentially, or one by one, but a new
type of ICP-MS instrument at NYU College of Dentistry and roughly two
dozen other places around the world has the potential to measure the
complete range of inorganic elements all at once.
More than H2O: Technology simultaneously measures 71 elements in water,
other liquids
A new method for simultaneous measurement of 71 inorganic elements in
liquids--including water, beverages, and biological fluids--makes element
testing much faster, more efficient, and more comprehensive than was
possible in the past. Credit: Sapna Parikh / New York University
"Because of this new method, our mass spectrometer can simultaneously
measure all inorganic elements from lithium to uranium. We're able to
measure the elements in far less time, at far less expense, using far less
material," said Timothy Bromage, professor of biomaterials and of basic
science and craniofacial biology at NYU College of Dentistry and the
study's senior author.
This technological advancement may help to fill gaps in our understanding
of element distributions and concentrations in substances like water. For
instance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitors and sets
maximum concentration limits for 19 elements in drinking water considered
to be health risks, yet many elements known to have health
consequences—such as lithium or tin—are neither monitored nor regulated.
"The elemental mapping of concentration levels in bottled and tap water
could help to increase our understanding of 'normal' concentration levels
of most elements in water," said Bromage.
Bromage and his colleagues designed a method for using simultaneous ICP-MS
to detect 71 elements of the inorganic spectrum involving a specific set
of calibration and internal standards. The method, for which they have a
patent pending, routinely detects elements in seconds to several minutes
and in samples as small as 1 to 4 milliliters.
More than H2O: Technology simultaneously measures 71 elements in water,
other liquids
A new method for simultaneous measurement of 71 inorganic elements in
liquids--including water, beverages, and biological fluids--makes element
testing much faster, more efficient, and more comprehensive than was
possible in the past. Credit: Sapna Parikh / New York University
Bromage and his research team tested the method on waters, beverages, and
biological samples. Snow contained the most elements of any water sample:
50 in snow collected in Italy and 42 in a sample from Croatia. "Such
evaluations of snow may represent a new and comprehensive means of
surveying atmospheric concentrations of elements and for monitoring
element patterns in global airflows," Bromage said.
When testing tap water, the researchers measured 37 elements when the tap
was first turned on but only 34 elements after the water was running for
five minutes, suggesting that elements such as iron and zinc may be
leaching from household pipes into the water.
The researchers also measured elements in bottled water, beer, wine, and
milk, as well as in samples of saliva, urine, and blood. Milk was
distinguished from the other beverages tested by its high concentrations
of titanium, zinc, palladium, and gold.
In each sample, Bromage and his team found a distinct "fingerprint" or
elemental pattern, suggesting that samples can be recognized and
differentiated by these patterns. The elemental content of water, for
example, typically reflects its natural environment, so understanding the
elemental composition can tell us if water had its origins from a source
with volcanic rock versus limestone, an alkaline rock. In bottled water,
the researchers observed variations that can likely be traced to one being
bottled at the source and one being chlorinated for transportation from
the source to the bottling plant.
Future studies will measure and report on larger samples of water, wine,
milk, and other fluids; a study of more than 1,000 wines from 34 countries
is in progress. In addition, once elemental patterns for specific
environments have been established, the method can be applied to answer
questions in fields that relate the present to the past, such as the
paleoenvironment and climate change.
"Water is an arbiter of how a system actually works. If you sample the
water from a pond or river and measure the elements, you are measuring the
stuff that becomes incorporated into all life—water feeds the plants,
animals eat the plants, we eat the plants and animals. We could use this
knowledge to study human fossils and potentially retrodict what the nature
of the region's water was hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago,"
said Bromage.
Explore further: New weathering analysis accurately traces the geochemical
flux beneath the Earth's surface
More information: Melanie Bäuchle et al, Quantification of 71 detected
elements from Li to U for aqueous samples by simultaneous-inductively
coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, RSC Advances (2018). DOI:
10.1039/c8ra07070a
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-11-h2o-technology-simultaneously-elements-liquids.html#jCp