Speciation of antimony for the 21st century: promises and pitfalls

The speciation of both volatile and non-volatile antimony compounds in biota has undergone tremendous improvements during recent years. However, many severe problems such as the preservation of species information, the extractability of Sb, and the availability of Sb standard compounds still hamper the reliable speciation of Sb. Although distinct progress has been made towards the hyphenation of adequate separation devices with powerful element-specific detectors, only limited information can be derived from those experiments. This review highlights the current state-of-the-art of Sb speciation, focusing on hyphenated instrumental techniques as well as on problems encountered. Issues such as biomethylation, biological significance, and occupational and environmental exposure are discussed. The principal limitations, and further directions for research needed to improve Sb speciation procedures ave described. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.