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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
An analytical methodology was developed to separate and quantify methylmercury (MeHg) and inorganic mercury by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CV-AFS). The use of UV oxidation of the organic forms of mercury, the tin(II) chloride reduction in acidic medium of mercury and the introduction of a water vapour trap based on H2SO4/CaCl2 resulted in a low detection limit (DL) (10 +/- 2 pg, mean value +/- S.D.). The apparatus was operationally optimised through the modified simplex method leading to an increase of the signal by a factor of 2. The method performance has been tested by determining the MeHg concentration in a sediment certified reference material (CRM) and the results were statistically indistinguishable from the certificate value (alpha = 0.05) both for the mean value and S.D.
Description
Keywords
Methylmercury Cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry Liquid chromatography UV radiation Simplex optimisation
Citation
Ramalhosa, Elsa; Río-Segade, Susana; Pereira, Eduarda; Vale, Carlos; Armando, Duarte (2001). Simple methodology for methylmercury and inorganic mercury determinations by high performance liquid chromatography-cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Analytica Chimica Acta. ISSN 0003-2670. 448:1-2, p. 135-143
Publisher
Elsevier