Determination of Arsenic and Mercury in Various Environmental Matrices by Chemical Neutron Activation Analysis

Abstract

Chemical neutron activation analysis was developed for determining trace amounts of arsenic and mercury in a variety of environmental matrices, including water, sediment, rock, plants, animal organs, etc: The adsorption procedure via magnesium oxide as the agent was applied to preconcentrate arsenic from the digested environmental matrices where arsenic in the form of As(V) ion could be highly efficiently adsorbed by hydrous magnesium oxide. On the other hand, the extraction procedure via lead diethyldithiocarbamate as the agent was applied to preconcentrate mercury from the digested environmental matrices where mercury in the form of Hg(II) ion could be highly efficiently extracted into the solution of lead diethyldithiocarbamte in dichloromethane. Both of the preconcentrated materials prepared ultimately in the solid states, i.e., arsenic in magnesium oxide and mercury in lead diethyldithiocarbamte were taken to be neutron irradiated. The γ spectra of the preconcentrated samples irradiated generally showed clear peaks of the product radionuclides from arsenic or from mercury by the different separation procedures. The possible interfering elements such as Na, Br, etc., were prominently minimized in respect of most of the preconcentrated samples. The reliability and accuracy of the proposed analytical methods for detecting arsenic and mercury can be confirmed by the assay of commercial standard reference materials including sediment, rock, plants, and animal organs.