Room-Temperature Isopiestic Distillation of in Situ Generated Arsenious Chloride and Its Application for the Determination of Trace Level Impurities in Arsenious Oxide

The room-temperature vapor pressures of HCl and AsCl3 in the presence of hydrochloric acid have been utilized in situ for the removal of arsenious oxide matrix as AsCl3 by isopiestic distillation. Reagent purification, sample dissolution, and matrix separation have been carried out in one step with a clean environment for both analyte and analyst. Quantitative recoveries have been achieved for most of the elements including volatile elements. Blank levels were found to be in nanograms per gram of As2O3 despite use of common reagents and simple reaction vessel. The utility of the present method for the analysis of As2O3 samples has been demonstrated.