The determination of mercury in air samples by flameless atomic absorption

A method is described for the determination of mercury in air by furnace atomic absorption. The porous graphite cups used ordinarily fail to adsorb mercury vapors from the air. When these same porous graphite cups are plated on the inner surface with a thin layer of gold the retention of mercury from an air sample passed through the cup is shown to be quantitative. The sensitivity of the analytical system is 3 × 10^?10 g which is equivalent to 0.6 $\text{μg}\text{m}{}^3$ for a 500 cm³ air sample. Relative S.D. is 11.2%. The method described should also prove useful for other types of flameless devices.