Speciation of mercury compounds in waste water by microcolumn liquid chromatography using a preconcentration column with cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometric detection

A microcolumn liquid chromatographic method with cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometric detection was developed for the speciation of mercury compounds in waste water. The sample solution containing mercury at the 4-ng level was injected onto a preconcentration column (27 mn × 0.51 mm i.d.) packed with Develosil-ODS (30 μm) and eluted with cysteine-acetic acid through a separation column (125 mm × 0.5 mm i.d.) packed with STR-ODS-H (5 μm). After oxidation, tin(II) chloride in sodium hydroxide solution was used to reduce mercury compounds to mercury. The generated mercury vapour was swept from a gas-liquid separator by argon into the detector cell and monitored at 253.7 nm. Mercury(II) chloride, methylmercury chloride and ethylmercury chloride, were well resolved and the determination was completed in less than 16 min. The method was successfully applied to the speciation of mercury compounds in waste water.