Comparison of the Adsorbed Mercury Screening Method with Cold-Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry for Determination of Mercury in Soil

Abstract

A field screening method for the determination of elemental mercury in environmental soil samples involves the thermal desorption of the mercury from the sample onto gold and then the thermal desorption from the gold to a goldfilm mercury vapor analyzer. This field screening method contains a large number of conditions that could be optimized for the various types of soils encountered. In this study, the conditions were optimized for the determination *To whom correspondence should be addressed. 1665This document is a U.S. government work and is not subject to copyright in the United States. EASTERLING, HOVANITZ, AND STREETof mercury in silty clay materials, and the results were comparable to the coldvapor atomic absorption spectrophotometric method of determination. This paper discusses the benefits and disadvantages of employing the field screening method and provides the sequence of conditions that must be optimized to employ this method of determination on other soil types.

Atomic Spectrometry Update. Advances in atomic emission, absorption, and fluorescence spectrometry, and related techniques

“…A field-screening procedure for the determination of Hg in soils 269 involved thermal desorption of the Hg onto a gold collector with further thermal desorption onto a gold film Hg vapour analyser. Results comparable to those of AAS were obtained.…”

Absorption of Mercury in Gold Films and Its Further Desorption: Quantitative Morphological Study of the Surface Patterns

“…Another method is based on desorption of the mercury from the taken sample, its further adsorption on the gold film and finally desorption to the gold−mercury vapor analyzer. It is called a field screening method and is used for the detection of Hg in the soil sample analysis . There are a number of electrochemical methods used to analyze even the traces of Hg in water. − In this method mercury is electrodeposited on a gold electrode that is either stationary 5 or rotating. , The films can be analyzed by, e.g., surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning Auger microscopy, or SEM .…”