Stabilization of Sulfur and Arsenic Species in Sulfidic, Iron-rich Geothermal Waters Using Solid Phase Extraction

Abstract:

Iron-rich geothermal waters pose a special challenge regarding sample stabilization for sulfur and arsenic speciation analysis. Standard stabilization techniques fail to preserve speciation due to precipitating iron oxyhydroxides and thus adsorption of arsenic when flash-freezing a sample or precipitation of orpiment (As₂S₃)-like phases when adding HNO₃. Solid phase extraction has the potential to extract anionic sulfur and arsenic species from solution and consequently separate them from cationic iron. This method was tested by applying synthetic solutions of sulfur and arsenic species onto Bio-Rad AG2-X8 resin and eluting the target species using 0.5 M Na-Salicylate. Complete retention of the initially applied amount on the resin was found for sulfate, thiosulfate, arsenate, monothioarsenate and trithioarsenate with 100.0 %, 99.7 %, 95.1 %, 98.9 %, and 99.8 %, respectively. Arsenite passed the resin without binding (3.0 % retention). All species bound to the resin could be eluted quantitatively and species-conserving with a recovery of 98.4 %, 102.8 %, 95.3 %, 90.5 % and 85.3 % for sulfate, thiosulfate, arsenate, monothioarsenate and trithioarsenate, respectively. Addition of 5 ppm FeCl₂ did not reduce method efficiency with 98.7 % retention and 105.1 % recovery for monothioarsenate, while all of the applied iron passed the resin without binding as hypothesized. However, in solutions containing a mixture of arsenite, arsenate, monothioarsenate and trithioarsenate we found arsenite retention up to 59.1 % both in the presence and absence of iron. This effect cannot be fully explained yet and might be attributed to free sulfide in these mixed solutions facilitating arsenite binding via sulfide sorbed onto the resin. The interaction between different species needs to be further investigated. Samples from geothermal features in Yellowstone and mineral springs in the Czech Republic have been collected and results of immediate elution and stability during storage will be presented.