Comparison of Mercury Vapor Pressure of Silver Amalgam-Based Electrode Materials Using AAS

Abstract

Nowadays, several amalgam-based electrodes are commonly used in electrochemistry as a less toxic alternative to mercury electrodes. Therefore, a comparison of the mercury vapor pressure of several silver amalgam-based electrode materials with the mercury vapor pressure of liquid mercury and of dental amalgam using AAS was done in this study. Method was optimized to get the highest mercury signal. Results showed that the mercury vapor pressure of amalgam-based electrode materials not containing liquid mercury is far lower than the mercury vapor pressure of liquid mercury (about two orders of signal magnitude) and comparable with mercury vapor pressure of dental amalgam.

Voltammetric Determination of Selected Nitro Compounds at a Polished Silver Solid Amalgam Composite Electrode

“…Nevertheless, due to increasing fears of liquid mercury toxicity during the last decades 8, which has resulted in the “mercury phobia” 9, attention has been paid to the development of solid electrodes (e.g., solid amalgam electrodes 10–14, solid composite electrodes 15–20, carbon paste electrodes 21 or boron‐doped diamond film electrodes 22), which can also be used for determination of various nitro compounds. From this point of view, working electrodes based on silver amalgam powder mixed with nonconducting binder, such as polished silver solid amalgam composite electrode (p‐AgSA‐CE) 18, represent a suitable nontoxic alternative to the traditional mercury electrodes; the novel types of electrode materials based on silver amalgam containing no liquid mercury produce negligible amount of mercury vapors in comparison with liquid mercury and materials containing liquid mercury 23. A good mechanical stability, simple handling and regeneration including an electrochemical pretreatment of the electrode surface are among the main advantages of the p‐AgSA‐CE.…”

Possibilities and Limitations of Mercury and Mercury-based Electrodes in Practical Electroanalysis of Biologically Active Organic Compounds

“…Although mercury should not be phased out and DME, SMDE and HMDE are definitely not obsolete, it is necessary to admit two obvious drawbacks of mercury electrodes, namely limited potential window in anodic region and low mechanical stability which complicate their application for measurements in flowing systems and for field measurements. Both mechanical stability ant toxicity problems were successfully addressed by the development of silver solid amalgam electrodes [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. These electrodes are non-toxic (mercury amalgam is used in dentistry for centuries without any obvious detrimental effects), mercury vapor pressure above them is negligible [17], they are mechanically stable and thus compatible with measurement in combination with flowing systems (HPLC-ED or FIA-ED) [e.g.…”

“…Both mechanical stability ant toxicity problems were successfully addressed by the development of silver solid amalgam electrodes [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. These electrodes are non-toxic (mercury amalgam is used in dentistry for centuries without any obvious detrimental effects), mercury vapor pressure above them is negligible [17], they are mechanically stable and thus compatible with measurement in combination with flowing systems (HPLC-ED or FIA-ED) [e.g. 23]) and they have potential window comparable with HMDE.…”

Voltammetric determination of genotoxic 4‐nitroindane at a mercury meniscus modified silver solid amalgam electrode

“…Conventional types of electrodes, such as a dropping mercury electrode and a hanging mercury drop electrode, can be successfully substituted by electrodes containing small amounts of liquid mercury or non-toxic mercury amalgams [10,11] (e. g., polished [12][13][14], mercury meniscus modified [12,13,15,16], mercury film modified [12,17], bismuth film modified [18,19], or carbon film modified silver solid amalgam electrodes [20][21][22], silver solid amalgam paste electrodes with an organic pasting liquid [23,24], silver amalgam paste electrodes [25,26], polished silver solid amalgam composite electrodes [27,28], single crystal amalgam electrodes [29,30], or renewable silver amalgam film electrodes [31,32]). Novel silver amalgambased electrode materials combine unrivalled properties of mercury electrodes (broad cathodic potential window and relatively high sensitivity [33][34][35]) with requirements of Green Analytical Chemistry (GAC) (non-toxicity and environmental friendliness [36]).…”