A simple and inexpensive laboratory-built vapor generator was used with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for the determination of Tl in sea-water samples. The application of vapor generation ( VG) ICP-MS alleviated the non-spectroscopic interferences encountered when the conventional pneumatic nebulizer was used for sample introduction. The concentration of Tl was determined by the isotope dilution method. The isotope ratio of Tl was calculated from the peak area of each injection peak. The repeatability of the peak area and isotope ratio determinations of seven consecutive injections of 1 ng ml−1 Tl solution was 2.8% and 2.4%, respectively. This method has a detection limit of 0.01 ng ml−1 for Tl in sea-water. This method was applied to determining Tl in CASS-3 nearshore sea-water reference sample, NASS-4 open ocean sea-water reference sample and sea-water samples collected from the Kaohsiung area. The result for the reference sample CASS-3 agreed satisfactorily with the reference value. Results for other samples analyzed by different quantitation methods agreed satisfactorily. Precision was better than 10% for most of the determinations.

A simple and inexpensive laboratory‐built vapor generator was used with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) for the determination of mercury in urine and seawater samples. The applications of vapor generation ICP‐MS alleviated the non‐spectroscopic interferences and the sensitivity problem of mercury determination encountered when the conventional pneumatic nebulizer was used for sample introduction. The concentration of mercury was determined by isotope dilution method. The isotope ratio of mercury was calculated from the peak areas of each injection peak. The repeatability of the peak areas and isotope ratio determinations of seven consecutive injections of 1 ng mL−1 Hg solution were 2.3% and 2.2%, respectively. This method has a detection limit of 0.07 ng mL−1 for mercury. This method was applied to determine mercury in a CASS‐3 nearshore seawater reference sample, NASS‐4 open ocean seawater reference sample, NIST SRM 2670 freeze‐dried urine reference sample and several urine and seawater samples collected from National Sun Yat‐Sen University. The results for the reference samples agreed satisfactorily with the reference values. Results for other samples analyzed by the isotope dilution method and the method of standard additions agreed satisfactorily. Precision was better than 10% for most of the determinations.

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