I am updating an old handed-down procedure for arsenic analysis by the hydride generation-atomic absorption method. In this procedure, the acid reagent (10% HCl) for hydride generation has 0.18% hydrazine monohydrate. I assume this is for reducing any As5+ to As3+ for better detection - is this correct? (I'm a microbiologist, not a chemist). If so, is there any other way to achieve that reduction? I would like to remove hydrazine from our procedures due to the fact that it is nasty stuff.
I'm a chemist (teacher) but I'm not immediately familiar with the procedure. That is right, the hydrazine reduces the arsenic to arsenic(III). This procedure, http://www.epa.gov/testmethods/pdfs/7061a.pdf, uses SnCl2 as the reducing agent.
You might try posting in the Chemical Forums at http://www.chemicalforums.com/. They have an analytical forum there that is pretty active. Sci.chem (Google) and The Chemistry Cluster (Yahoo) also have members with more practical experience than I do.
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