In-situ concentration and determination of mercury by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with Pd-Rh as the chemical modifier

A method has been proposed for the determination of mercury by cold vapor generation graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (CV-GFAAS) with Pd-Rh as coating and chemical modifier. The trapping efficiency for mercury with Pd-Rh was higher than with Pd alone. The characteristic mass of the method, which gives an integrated absorbance of 0.0044 s, was found to be 55 pg and the absolute detection limit (3 σ) of 37 pg was obtained with the proposed modifier. The method was successfully applied to the determination of mercury in standard reference water samples, wastewater samples and cosmetics with a recovery range of 95–104%. Received: 10 April 1998 / Revised: 20 August 1998 / Accepted: 23 September 1998     

In-situ concentration and determination of mercury by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with Pd-Rh as the chemical modifier

A method has been proposed for the determination of mercury by cold vapor generation graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (CV-GFAAS) with Pd-Rh as coating and chemical modifier. The trapping efficiency for mercury with Pd-Rh was higher than with Pd alone. The characteristic mass of the method, which gives an integrated absorbance of 0.0044 s, was found to be 55 pg and the absolute detection limit (3 σ) of 37 pg was obtained with the proposed modifier. The method was successfully applied to the determination of mercury in standard reference water samples, wastewater samples and cosmetics with a recovery range of 95–104%. Received: 10 April 1998 / Revised: 20 August 1998 / Accepted: 23 September 1998     

Determination of mercury in mineral coal using cold vapor generation directly from slurries,trapping in a graphite tube,and electrothermal atomization

A rugged and reliable method for the determination of mercury in coal without sample digestion, based on chemical vapor generation (cold vapor technique) from slurried coal samples has been developed. It involves collection of the mercury vapor in a graphite tube, treated with gold or rhodium as permanent modifier, and determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Mercury quantitatively leached out of the investigated coal reference materials into 1 mol l⁻¹ nitric acid within 48 h when the coal was ground to a particle size of ≤50 μm, except for one sample (BCR 180), which had to be ground to ≤30 μm, or a leaching time of 72 h had to be used. No detectable quantity of mercury was generated directly from the slurry particles, but it was not necessary to filter the solution. The greatest advantage of the method is that only a minimum of reagents and sample handling steps are required, a prerequisite for accurate results in routine analysis. The results were well within the 95% confidence level of the certificate or close to the information value of the reference materials investigated. The characteristic mass of 110 pg obtained with gold as the permanent modifier is close to values reported for direct analysis of solutions, showing close to 100% trapping efficiency for mercury. A limit of detection (LOD) of 90 pg absolute was obtained with this modifier, which corresponds to an LOD of 0.009 μg g⁻¹ Hg in coal. This is based on 1 ml of slurry containing 10 mg of coal, and is an order of magnitude lower than the lowest mercury content in the investigated reference materials.     

Development of a mild mercaptoethanol extraction method for determination of mercury species in biological samples by HPLC–ICP-MS

A mild, efficient and convenient extraction method of using 2-mercaptoethanol contained extractant solution combined with an incubator shaker for determination of mercury species in biological samples by HPLC–ICP-MS has been developed. The effects of the concentration of 2-mercaptoethanol, the composition of the extractant solution and the shaking time on the efficiency of mercury extraction were evaluated. The optimization experiments indicated that the quantitative extraction of mercury species from biological samples could be achieved by using 0.1% (v/v) HCl, 0.1% (v/v) 2-mercapoethanol and 0.15% (m/v) KCl extractant solution in an incubator shaker for shaking overnight (about 12 h) at room temperature. The established method was validated by analysis of various biological certified reference materials, including NRCC DOLT-3 (dogfish liver), IAEA 436 (tuna fish), IAEA MA-B-3/TM (garfish filet), IAEA MA-M-2/TM (mussel tissue), GBW 08193 (bovine liver) and GBW 08572 (prawn). The analytical results of the reference materials were in good agreement with the certified or reference values of both methyl and total mercury, indicating that no distinguishable transformation between mercury species had occurred during the extraction and determination procedures. The limit of detection (LOD) for methyl (CH₃Hg⁺) and inorganic mercury (Hg²⁺) by the method are both as 0.2 μg L⁻¹. The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.s) for CH₃Hg⁺ and Hg²⁺ are 3.0% and 5.8%, respectively. The advantages of the developed extraction method are that (1) it is easy to operate in HPLC–ICP-MS for mercury species determination since the extracted solution can be directly injected into the HPLC column without pH adjustment and (2) the memory effect of mercury in the ICP-MS measurement system can be reduced.     

盐酸提取-液相色谱-原子荧光联用技术检测水产品中甲基汞等汞化合物

建立了HCl提取,高效液相色谱与原子荧光联用技术测定水产中无机汞、甲基汞、乙基汞形态的分析方法。对前处理方法和液相色谱的最佳参数进行优化,实验表明,3种汞化合物的线性范围为0~100μg/L,相关系数(r)均优于0.9990,检出限在0.3~0.6μg/L之间,汞化合物各形态的RSD均小于5%,加标回收率在78.8%~116.8%之间,标准物质(GBW10029),(GBW09101B)中汞形态的测定值均在标准值范围内,参加甲基汞FAPAS国际比对,测定结果的Z比分数为1.0,故本方法适用于水产品中汞化合物形态的分析测定。     

Noble metals as permanent chemical modifiers for the determination of mercury in environmental reference materials using solid sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry and calibration against aqueous standards

Iridium, palladium, rhodium and ruthenium, thermally deposited on the platform, were investigated as permanent modifiers for the determination of mercury in ash, sludge, marine and river sediment reference materials, ground to a particle size of 50 μm, using solid sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. A total mass of 250 μg of each modifier was applied using 25 injections of 20 μl of modifier solution (500 mg l⁻¹), and executing a temperature program for modifier conditioning after each injection. The performance of palladium was found to be most consistent, taking the characteristic mass as the major criterion, resulting in an excellent correlation between the measured integrated absorbance values and the certified mercury contents. Mercury was found to be lost in part from aqueous solutions during the drying stage in the presence of all the investigated permanent modifiers, as well as in the presence of the palladium and magnesium nitrates modifier added in solution. A loss-free determination of mercury in aqueous solutions could be reached only after the addition of potassium permanganate, which finally made possible the use of aqueous standards for the direct analysis of solid samples. A characteristic mass of 55–60 pg Hg was obtained for the solid samples, using Pd as a permanent modifier, and also in aqueous solutions after the addition of permanganate. The results obtained for mercury in ash, sludge and sediment reference materials, using direct solid sapling and calibration against aqueous standards, as well as the detection limit of 0.2 mg kg⁻¹ were satisfactory for a routine procedure.     

ICP-AES determination of trace rare earth elements in environmental and food samples by on-line separation and preconcentration with acetylacetone-modified silica gel using microcolumn.

A novel method of online microcolumn separation and preconcentration coupled to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) with the use of acetylacetone-modified silica gel as packing material was developed for the determination of trace rare earth elements (REEs) in environmental and food samples. The main parameters affecting online separation/preconcentration, including pH, sample flow rate, sample volume, elution and interfering ions, have been investigated in detail. Under the optimized operating conditions, the adsorption capacity values for Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu were 25.65, 23.23, 24.01, 19.40, 22.89, 23.77, 24.40, 23.96, 25.58, 25.15, 24.86, 22.75, 16.05, 24.13, 26.51 and 27.93 mg g(-1), respectively. Detection limits (3sigma) based on three times standard deviations of the blanks by 8 replicates were in the range from 48 pg mL(-1) for Lu to 1003 pg mL(-1) for Sm. With 90 s preconcentration time and 10 s elution time, the enrichment factor was 10 and the sample frequency was 28 h(-1). The precisions (RSDs) obtained by determination of a 250 ng mL(-1) (n = 8) REEs standard solution were in the range from 1.7% for Y to 4.4% for Sm. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of trace REEs in pig liver, agaric and mushroom. To validate the proposed method, we analyzed three certified reference materials (GBW07401 soil, GBW07301a sediment, and GBW07605 tea leaves). The determined values were in a good agreement with the certified values. The method is rapid, selective, sensitive and applicable to the determination of trace REEs in biological and environmental samples with complicated matrix effects.     

纳米二氧化钛分离富集-原子荧光光谱法测定植物样品中的痕量汞

随着汞（Hg）污染研究的不断发展,对检测数据准确度的要求也不断提高。原子荧光光谱法（AFS）自诞生以来一直以其独特的优点作为测汞的主流方法,然而部分植物样品中含量极低的汞难以被准确检测,适宜的分离富集方法很少。本文采用纳米二氧化钛（TiO2）动态分离富集-原子荧光光谱法测定植物样品中的痕量汞,对分离富集条件进行了系统研究,最优条件为:粒径25nm、过柱溶液pH中性、硝酸为洗脱液用酸、硝酸体积分数5%、洗脱液体积30mL。在此基础上建立了汞的检测方法,方法检出限0.27ng·g-1,精密度（RSD/%）7.2%,并对国家一级标准物质GBW10014a（圆白菜）、GBW10015a（菠菜）进行检测,测定值均符合参考范围。     

Slurry Sampling Electrothermal Vaporization Combined with ICP-AES for Direct Analysis of Environmental Samples

In this article, a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) slurry was used as a chemical modifier for direct determination of trace elements in environmental samples by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ETV-ICP-AES) with slurry sampling. The vaporization behaviors of the analytes in slurry and solution were comparatively studied in the presence of PTFE. The main influence factors for this method were examined. Under the optimum operating conditions, the precision of this method was better than 7% with the detection limits varying from 1.7 ng mL^?1 (Cu) to 203 ng mL^?1 (Zn). The proposed method has been applied to the direct determination of the trace elements in camphor tree leaves and standard reference material (the combined sample of branch and leaf of shrub, GBW 07603) with satisfactory results.     

Simultaneous determination of methylmercury and ethylmercury in rice by capillary gas chromatography coupled on-line with atomic fluorescence spectrometry

A comprehensive method for simultaneous determination of methylmercury (MeHg) and ethylmercury (EtHg) in rice by capillary gas chromatography (GC) coupled on-line with atomic fluorescence spectrometry was developed. The experimental conditions, including the pyrolyzer temperature and flow rates of the make-up gas and sheath gas, were optimized in detail. The absolute detection limits (3sigma) were 0.005 ng as Hg for both MeHg and EtHg. The relative standard deviation values (n=5) for 10 ng Hg/mL of MeHg and EtHg were 2.5 and 1.3%, respectively. The method was evaluated by analyzing 2 certified reference materials (DORM-2 and GBW08508), and the determined values of MeHg and total mercury concentrations were in good agreement with the certified values. In addition, the recoveries of MeHg and EtHg spiked into a rice sample collected from Jiangsu province in China were 86 and 77%, respectively. The proposed method was applied to analysis of MeHg and EtHg in 25 rice samples cultivated in 15 provinces of China. In all samples, MeHg was detectable and no EtHg was found. The MeHg contents in rice samples ranged from 1.9 to 10.5 ng/g, accounting for 7-44% of the total mercury measured.     

Determination of methyl mercury in water samples with electromagnetic induction thermal desorption/pyrolysis coupled to atomic fluorescence spectrometry

A novel non-chromatographic method for the pre-concentration and determination of trace methyl mercury in water samples has been proposed. This method included two main steps: (1) The methyl mercury in sample solution was adsorbed on PDMS of the Fe/SiO₂/PDMS bed enrichment column; (2) the analyte was thermally desorbed from the enrichment column and pyrolysed to Hg⁰ in an iron particle bed pyrolysis column by using electromagnetic induction heating technique, and then detected by an on-line coupled atomic fluorescence detector. Several factors affecting the enrichment column preparation and concentration procedure have been investigated and optimised. Under optimal condition, the detection limit (3σ) was 0.2 ng L^–1, along with relative standard deviations of 2.4% (10 ng L^–1, N = 11) for the repeatability study. The enrichment factor obtained was 108. The two standard reference materials (GBW08675, GBW10029) were analysed to validate the present method. This method was successfully applied to the determination of ng L^–1 methyl mercury in water samples.     

Ultrasensitive determination of mercury by ICP-OES coupled with a vapor generation approach based on solution cathode glow discharge

We herein proposed a sample introduction technique based on solution cathode glow discharge（SCGD）of a portable design for inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry（ICP-OES） and its application in sensitive determination of mercury. The products from SCGD containing mercury vapor, were transported by an Ar flow to ICP spectrometer for detection. A gas liquid separator（GLS） and a dryer were used to condense and remove most of the accompanying moisture, which greatly improved both th...     

Ionic liquids based single drop microextraction combined with electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for determination of Co,Hg and Pb in biological and environmental samples

A new method of ionic liquids based cycle flow single drop microextraction combined with electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ETV-ICP-MS) was proposed for the determination of trace Co, Hg and Pb with 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) as both extractant and chemical modifier and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate as the extraction solvent. Several factors that influence the microextraction efficiency, such as sample pH, sample flow rate, microdrop volume and extraction time, were investigated and the optimized microextraction conditions were established. Co, Hg and Pb in the post-extraction ionic liquids phase were directly determined by ETV-ICP-MS with the use of PAN as chemical modifier. The chemical modification of PAN in ETV-ICP-MS was studied and the factors affecting the vaporization behaviors of target analytes were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of the method were 1.5, 9.8 and 6.7 pg/mL for Co, Hg and Pb, with the relative standard deviations for 0.5 ng/mL (n = 7) of Co, Hg and Pb were 7.7%, 5.2% and 12.0%, respectively. After 10 min of extraction, the enrichment factors were 350 (Co), 50 (Hg) and 60 (Pb). The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of trace Co, Hg and Pb in human serum and environmental water samples. In order to validate the developed method, a certified reference material of human hair (GBW07601) was analyzed and the determined values were in good agreement with the certified values.     

Electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry determination of gold, palladium, and platinum using chelating resin YPA(4) as both extractant and chemical modifier

A new method for determination of trace gold (Au), palladium (Pd), and platinum (Pt) in environmental and geological samples by electrothermal vaporization (ETV)-inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) with the use of chelating resin YPA₄ as both solid phase extractant and chemical modifier has been developed. The resin loaded with analytes was prepared to slurry and directly introduced into the graphite furnace without any pretreatment. The factors affecting the vaporization behaviors of Au, Pd, and Pt were investigated in detail. It was found that, in the presence of YPA₄, Au and Pd could be quantitatively vaporized at lower vaporization temperature of 1900 °C. Compared with the conventional electrothermal vaporization, the vaporization temperature was decreased by 700 °C, and the detection limits for Au and Pd was decreased by a three-fold. However, a little effect of YPA₄ on the ETV-ICP-AES determination of Pt was found. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits (3σ) of Au, Pd, and Pt for this method are 75, 60, and 217 pg, respectively; and their relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) are 4.4, 5.6, and 3.7%, respectively (n=9, C=0.2 μg ml⁻¹). The proposed method has been applied to the determination of trace Pd and Pt in sewage sludge, and the results well agreed with the recommended values. In order to further verify the accuracy of the developed method, a GBW07293 certified geological reference material and an auto catalyst NIST SRM 2557 reference material were analyzed, and the determined values coincided with the certified values very well.     

A new neutron activation technique for simultaneous determination of inorganic and total mercury contents in human hair

A simple method for simultaneous determination of inorganic and total mercury contents in human hair by neutron activation analysis (NAA) has been developed. The method is based on the selective extraction of methylmercury from hair by hydrochloric acid. Thus, the residual phase containing inorganic mercury can be determined by NAA. Further, the methylmercury contents in hair samples are easily calculated by subtracting the inorganic mercury contribution from the total Hg simultaneously given by INAA. Several reference materials of human hair, including IAEA hair RM 085 and 086, Chinese hair RMs GBW 09101 and 07601, were analyzed by this method. Our results show that the method is reliable.     

Dielectric barrier discharge-plasma induced vaporization and its application to the determination of mercury by atomic fluorescence spectrometry

This paper describes a low-temperature dielectric barrier discharge (DBD)-plasma induced vaporization technique using mercury as a model analyte. The evaporation and atomization of dissolved mercury species in the sample solution can be achieved rapidly in one step, allowing mercury to be directly detected by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The DBD plasma was generated concentrically in-between two quartz tube (outer tube: i.d. 5 mm and o.d. 6 mm, inner tube: i.d. 2 mm and o.d. 3 mm). A copper electrode was embedded inside the inner quartz tube and sample solution was applied onto the outer surface of the inner tube. The effects of operating parameters such as plasma power, plasma gas identity, plasma gas flow rate and interferences from concomitant elements have been investigated. The difference in the sensitivities of Hg(2+), methylmercury (MeHg) and ethylmercury (EtHg) was found to be negligible in the presence of formic acid (≥1% v/v). The analytical performance of the present technique was evaluated under optimized conditions. The limits of detection were calculated to be 0.02 ng mL(-1) for Hg(2+), MeHg and EtHg, and repeatability was 6.2%, 4.9% and 4.3% RSD (n = 11) for 1 ng mL(-1) of Hg(2+), MeHg and EtHg, respectively. This provides a simple mercury detection method for small-volume samples with an absolute limit of detection at femtogram level. The accuracy of the system was verified by the determination of mercury in reference materials including freeze-dried urine ZK020-2, simulated water matrix reference material GBW(E) 080392 and tuna fish GBW10029, and the concentration of mercury determined by the present method agreed well with the reference values.     

Microcolumn packed with YPA(4) chelating resin on-line separation/preconcentration combined with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry using Pd as a permanent modifier for the determination of trace mercury in water samples

A new method using a microcolumn packed with YPA₄ chelating resin as solid-phase extractor has been developed for the separation and preconcentration of trace Hg prior to its measurement by GFAAS with Pd as a permanent modifier. Various parameters such as the amount of the modifier, pH, sample flow rate, the concentration and volume of eluent have been studied in order to find the best conditions for the determination of mercury. The detection limit of the method (3σ) for Hg based on an enrichment factor of 100 was 0.2 ng ml⁻¹. A characteristic mass of 114 pg was obtained for mercury using Pd as a permanent modifier. The relative standard deviation was 2.8% at the 10 ng ml⁻¹ level (n = 5). The method has been applied to the determination of trace mercury in environmental water samples and the recoveries for the spiked samples are in the range of 91-105%.     

Direct inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry analysis of trace elements in muscle tissues of hairtail using electrothermal vaporization with slurry sampling

A procedure for direct determination of trace elements in muscle tissue of hairtail was developed using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry and electrothermal vaporization with slurry sampling. Due to use of polytetrafluoroethylene as the chemical modifier, the vaporization behaviors of analytes from the slurry and the aqueous standard solutions were very similar. In this case, the aqueous standards could be used for the calibration of slurry samples. The main factors influencing this method were studied systematically. The detection limits for Cr, Ni, Zn, Cd, and Pb were 3.1, 10.5, 176, 6.9, and 83 ng/mL, respectively, and the relative standard deviations were less than 10%. The proposed method was applied to the determination of trace Cr, Ni, Zn, Cd, and Pb in hairtail samples with satisfactory accuracy and precision. A certified reference material of mussel (GBW 08571) was analyzed, and good agreement was obtained between the results from the proposed method and certificate values.     

The use of electrothermal vaporization ICP-OES for the determination of trace elements in human hair using slurry sampling and PTFE as modifier

A procedure for the determination of trace elements in human hair has been proposed by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ETV-ICP-OES) with slurry sampling. Slurry was prepared by immersing human hair with conc. HNO₃ and then adding a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) slurry, which was used as a chemical modifier for the improvement of vaporization characteristic of analyte. The slurry was homogenized with an ultrasonic vibrator before the measurement. The vaporization behaviour of the analytes in slurry and solution and the main influence factors for the determination were studied with the addition of PTFE systematically. Detection limits for this method varied from 0.033?µg?g^?1 (Cu) to 3.21?µg?g^?1 (Zn) with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2.8–7.1%. The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of trace elements (Cu, Mn, Cr, Fe, Zn, Cd and Pb) in human hair with minimum chemical pretreatment and aqueous calibration. The accuracy was checked by comparing the results of this method with those using pneumatic nebulization (PN) ICP-OES after a conventional acid decomposition of the same sample. In addition, the standard reference material of human hair (GBW 07601) was analysed with good agreement between the results from the proposed method and the certified values.     

高频红外碳硫分析仪测定石膏矿中的三氧化硫

利用高频红外碳硫仪对石膏矿中三氧化硫含量的测定进行了研究,取得了较好的结果.方法检出限为0.003 0%.用石膏标准样品(GBW03109a,GBW03110)进行分析,测定值与认定值相符,测定值的相对标准偏差(n=9)在0.32%~0.81%之间.使用石膏标准样品(GBW03111)进行本法与国标硫酸钡重量法做比对试验,测定结果无显著性差异.加标回收率为96.4%~104.0%.