ABSTRACT
Nowadays, mass spectrometry (MS) is considered as one of the most important and widely employed analytical techniques for the analysis of any kind of sample matrices, especially those of environmental origin. Moreover, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a powerful conjugation of an effective atomization technique with a highly selective one and therefore, can aid in the measurement of ultra trace concentrations of almost any kind of analyte at trace and ultra trace levels.
In this respect, this article aims to describe the most recent advances and applications of the above technique in the speciation and metallomic analysis of marine organisms and several kinds of biota. Since the species-specific analysis is the target of this chapter, most of the applications make use of the hyphenated technique of LC-ICPMS and to a lesser extend of other similar techniques. As metal species and metallomes such as metalloproteins, organometallics, and metal-bound polymers do not have significant volatility, liquid chromatography instead of gas chromatography is utilized. The twin technique of ICP-AES, although simple, is employed less because of insufficient detectability for biometals in ultratrace analysis.
