Author(s)

Stefanie Mädler^1,2, Fengrong Sun¹, Cindy Tat¹, Nadya Sudakova¹, Peter Drouin¹, Robert J. Tooley¹, Eric J. Reiner^1,3, Teresa A. Switzer¹, Richard Dyer⁴, H. M. Skip Kingston⁵, Matt Pamuku⁶, Vasile I. Furdui¹

¹Laboratory Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Ontario, Canada.
²Conservation Ontario, Ontario, Canada.
³Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴Ontario Geological Survey, Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, Ontario, Canada.
⁵Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA.
⁶Applied Isotope Technologies, Pittsburgh, USA.

The analysis of hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), in soil and sediment samples has been predominantly carried out in materials containing elevated levels. Reliable analysis of trace-level of Cr(VI) in sediment samples remains challenging. Cr(VI) analyses with multipoint calibration and speciated isotope dilution (SID) adapted from U.S. EPA method 6800 were used to measure lower-level Cr(VI) on an ion chromatograph coupled with a tandem mass spectrometer (IC-MS/MS). Lake sediment samples were collected from various locations in Northern Ontario and Cr(VI) was extracted using both alkaline digestion and ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) extraction. Certified reference materials were extracted and analyzed by IC-MS/MS and UV-VIS detection. The SID-MS approach allowed for the quantification of Cr(VI) in samples with concentration levels below 0.5 μg.g-1 wet weight.

Trace-Level Analysis, Ion Chromatography, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Chromium Speciation, Speciated Isotope Dilution

Mädler, S. , Sun, F. , Tat, C. , Sudakova, N. , Drouin, P. , Tooley, R. , Reiner, E. , Switzer, T. , Dyer, R. , Kingston, H. , Pamuku, M. and Furdui, V. (2016) Trace-Level Analysis of Hexavalent Chromium in Lake Sediment Samples Using Ion Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Journal of Environmental Protection, 7, 422-434. doi: 10.4236/jep.2016.73037.