Determination of volatile mercury compounds in air with the coleman mercury analyzer system |
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Authors: | R. Dumarey R. Heindryckx R. Dams J. Hoste |
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Affiliation: | Institute for Nuclear Sciences, Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Proeftuinstraat 86, B-9000 GentBelgium |
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Abstract: | A simple but very selective cold-vapour atomic absorption system is described for the determination of volatile mercury compounds at very low levels in ambient air. Three different absorbers are compared: activated charcoal, silver-coated sea sand and gold-coated sea sand. To eliminate interferences, a two-step desorption unit is used. After thermal desorption, the mercury is measured by using a modified MAS-50 spectrophotometer. The effects of flow rate and desorption temperature are discussed. The detection limit is 0.1 ng. Above 1 ng, the reproducibility is about 1%. Calibration is done by injection of elemental mercury vapour. The method with gold-coated sand absorbers is most satisfactory and is suitable for the analysis of ambient outdoor and indoor air. All likely volatile mercury compounds are absorbed, and a wide range of mercury concentrations can be determined. In routine application, one analysis takes about 3 min. |
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