Am. Carrodiaz et al., SPECIATION OF ORGANOMERCURIALS IN BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL-SAMPLES BY GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH MICROWAVE-INDUCED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION DETECTION, Journal of chromatography, 683(1), 1994, pp. 245-252
The applicability of a commercial microwave-induced plasma atomic emis
sion detector with capillary gas chromatography for mercury speciation
in environmental samples was examined. The chromatographic conditions
were optimized in order to obtain an adequate resolution of the methy
lmercury peak vs. interfering carbon signals. Under the proposed opera
tional conditions, the detection limit (signal-to-noise ratio = 3) was
1.2 pg with a linear range of 1-40 ng ml(-1) (as methylmercury in sam
ples). Certified reference material (DORM-1) was used to evaluate the
accuracy. The results of the proposed procedure were compared with tho
se obtained by means of the usual GC method with electron-capture dete
ction.