Versuche zur Anreicherung von Edelmetallspuren in Reinstquecksilber durch partielles Lösen der Matrix

Trace impurities of gold and palladium in metallic mercury can be enriched in a simple way by partially dissolving the sample in nitric acid. Practically the whole trace content of the sample will be collected in the residue. Up to at least 100 g Hg the quantity of the mercury sample has no influence on the trace enrichment. After the partial dissolution of the metal the enriched gold was determined photometrically with Rhodamine B as a reagent, Pd was determined as [PdJ₄]^2? complex. For the analysis of metallic mercury containing 0.5 ppm of Au and 2 ppm of Pd the relative standard deviation is 0.046, respectively 0.037. The limit of detection was found to be at 0.2 ppm for both the elements. Using this method, the enrichment of traces of silver in mercury is not possible.