A flow-injection system for multielemental analysis with a mercury(II) preconcentration step using a resin Chelite-S Õ (Serva Feinbiochemica Heidelberg, Part No. 41709) packed minicolumn by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy is
MARCEL DEKKER, INC. • 270 MADISON AVENUE • NEW YORK, NY 10016described. A mercury reductive elution procedure with a mixture of SnCl 2 /HCl was used, which allows use of 6 mol/L HCl solution instead of concentrated hydrochoric acid. The main parameters related to ICP operation, such as radio frequency power (950-1750 W), auxiliary argon flow (0.0-1.5 L/min) and spray chamber nebulizer pressure (15-35 psi), were studied. Optimization of the FIA system was reached by defining the best eluent carrier stream (1.4-2.8 mL/min), Hg carrier stream (10-40 mL min À1 ), loading time (0.5-4.0 min), sample flow rate (1.25-10.0 mL/min), temperature of reactor gas-liquid separator (GLS) (25-75 C) and eluent volume (50-350 mL). Throughput is around 30 samples per hour for analytical solutions within the range 50-2500 ng Hg(II)/L. Results from certified material showed good precision (RSD <3%, n ¼ 12) and no statistical difference was observed for real samples analyzed by AAS and by the proposed system.