Organic arsenic compounds (trialkylarsines) present in natural gas were extracted by 10cm3 of concentrated nitric acid from 1 dm3 of gas kept at ambient pressure and temperature. The flask containing the gas and the acid was shaken for 1 h on a platform shaker set at the highest speed. The resulting solution was mixed with concentrated sulfuric acid and heated to convert all arsenic compounds to arsenate. Total arsenic was determined in the mineralized solutions by hydride generation. The arsenic concentrations in natural gas samples from a number of wells in several gas fields were in the range 0.01-63 pg As dmP3. Replicate determinations of arsenic in a gas sample with an arsenic concentration of 5.9 pg dm-3 had a relative standard deviation of 1.7%. Because of the high blank values, the lowest arsenic concentration that could be reliably determined was 5ngAsdmP3 gas. Analysis of nonmineralized extracts by hydride generation identified trimethylarsine as the major arsenic compound in natural gas. Low-temperature gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed more directly than the hydride generation technique, that trimethylarsine accounts for 55-80% of the total arsenic in several gas samples. Dimethylethylarsine, methyldiethylarsine, and triethylarsine were also identified, in concentrations decreasing with increasing molecular mass of the arsines.

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Total arsenic was determined in crude petroleum and liquid hydrocarbons derived from crude petroleum by extraction with boiling water or boiling aqueous nitric acid (concentration 0.25 to 2.5 M), mineralization of the extracts with concentrated nitric/sulphuric acid, and reduction of the arsenate to arsine in a hydride generator. The arsine was flushed into a helium-DC plasma. The arsenic emission was monitored at 228.8 nm. The total arsenic concentration in 53 crude oil samples ranged from 0.04 to 514 mg L(-1) (median 0.84 mg L(-1)). Arsenic was also determined in several refined liquid hydrocarbons and in a commercially available arsenic standard in an organic matrix (triphenylarsine in xylene). The method was checked with NIST 1634b "Trace Elements in Residual Fuel Oil". The arsenic concentration found in this standard agreed with the certified value (0.12±0.2 μg g(-1)) within experimental error. Viscous hydrocarbons such as the fuel oil must be dissolved in xylene for the extraction to be successful. Hydride generation applied to an aqueous not-mineralized extract from an oil containing 1.67 μg As mL(-1) revealed, that trimethylated arsenic (520 ng mL(-1)) is the predominant arsenic species among the reducible and detectable arsenic compounds. Monomethylated arsenic (104 ng ml(-1)), inorganic arsenic (23 ng mL(-1)), and dimethylated arsenic (low ng mL(-1)) were also detected. The sum of the concentrations of these arsenic species accounts for only 39% of the total arsenic in the sample.

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Caps of the edible mushroom Laccaria amethystina collected during September and October at forested sites in the vicinity of the town of Domzale in Central Slovenia, Yugoslavia, were found by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and hydride generation to have total arsenic concentrations between 109 and 200 mg As kg−1 (dry mass). The extraction of fresh, frozen or freeze‐dried caps with cold Tris buffer at pH 7.6, or with boiling water, transferred 60–70% of the arsenic into the aqueous phase. Sephadex gel permeation chromatography indicated that the arsenic compounds in these extracts were not associated with proteins or other organic compounds of molecular mass larger than 4000 Dal. Cation‐exchange chromatography coupled with NAA, hydride generation, and reverse‐phase chromatography with arsenic‐specific detection (HPLC ICP) showed that dimethylarsinic acid is the major arsenic compound in the extracts. Methylarsonic acid and arsenate account for no more than 10% each of the total arsenic.

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