E. Saouter et B. Blattmann, ANALYSES OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MERCURY BY ATOMIC FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY USING A SEMIAUTOMATIC ANALYTICAL SYSTEM, Analytical chemistry, 66(13), 1994, pp. 2031-2037
The present work describes an improved method for the determination of
total and organic mercury by decreasing analysis time (use of a dual
circuit), sample size, and handling procedures and eliminating the nee
d for a clean room condition while maintaining the detection limit bel
ow the parts per trillion (pptr) level. Total mercury was analyzed aft
er reduction by a one-stage gold amalgamation before transfer to an at
omic fluorescence spectrometer. The detection limit was 0.07 ng L(-1)
for aqueous samples and 1 ng g(-1) for biological tissue. Analysis tim
e was 5 min. Organic mercury was first derivatized using sodium tetrae
thylborate and then trapped onto a graphitized carbon trap before tran
sfer to an isothermally controlled GC column coupled to a cold vapor a
tomic fluorescence spectrometer. The detection limit for methylmercury
was 0.05 ng L(-1) for aqueous samples and 1.4 ng g(-1) for biological
tissue. Samples were analyzed in 10 min. The outlined analytical prot
ocol permits a semiautomation of both inorganic and organic mercury an
alyses.