THE DETERMINATION OF MERCURY AT ULTRATRACE LEVELS USING AN AUTOMATED AMALGAMATION TECHNIQUE

The use of amalgamation coupled with a flow injection accessory for th e automatic preconcentration of mercury in environmental samples is de scribed. The mercury is collected onto a gold gauze, and when a suffic ient amount is collected, the gauze is heated and the liberated mercur y is swept into a quartz cell located in the sample compartment of a f lame AAS. The flow injection valve is used to control the mercury depo sition onto the gold gauze thereby minimizing carryover effects from c ontaminated reagents and concentrated samples. The detection limit obt ained with an 8.5-mL sample volume is 2 ng/L Hg.