Due to its toxicological effects, Cr speciation (i.e., the determination of individual Cr-species concentration) continues to receive attention. This is because trivalent Cr3+ is a micronutrient essential to life, whereas hexavalent Cr6+ is carcinogenic. And, Cr in lake waters is important because there are ~5 million lakes worldwide. We are developing a method to initially determine the total Cr concentrations in lake waters using a microplasma coupled to an optical emission spectrometer. In this paper, an answer to the question “what are the Cr-species present in lake waters” will be discussed and progress towards determination of Cr-concentrations using a microplasma will be described.
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