| Abstract: | Abstract The determination of mercury and phenylmercury in the ppb concentration range using polyurethane foam (PUF) thin-layer spectrophotometry has been described. Sorption of mercury and phenylmercury into foam parallepiped loaded with diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) contributed to considerable improvement in the absorbance value of the colored species, being concentrated about 140 times. The method allowed the achievement of satisfactory results, the detection limits are 5 and 10 μg per litre for mercury and phenylmercury, respectively, for 100ml sample volume. The average recovery from tap water amounts to 100% for mercury and 96.6% for phenylmercury. |
