Measurement techniques for mercury species in ambient air

Pandey, Sudhir Kumar; Kim, Ki‐Hyun; Brown, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.trac.2011.01.017

Cited by 105 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Some of the samplers we review here are unable to distinguish between GOM and GEM (Gustin and Jaffe, 2010;Pandey et al, 2011;Skov et al, 2007). GEM generally makes up > 98-99 % of TGM at most sampling locations (Pandey et al, 2011;Gustin and Jaffe, 2010;Gustin et al, 2011), and thus GOM is expected to contribute a relatively minor proportion to the overall uncertainty of a GEM measurement (Pandey et al, 2011).…”

Section: S Mclagan Et Al: Passive Air Sampling Of Gaseous Elemenmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…GEM's relatively high vapour pressure and inertness to atmospheric oxidation leads to a long atmospheric residence time of approximately 1 year (Lin et al, 2006;Pirrone et al, 2010;Skov et al, 2004). GOM and PBM have much shorter atmospheric residence times and are deposited closer to their source locations (Lin et al, 2006;Pandey et al, 2011;Skov et al, 2007). Thus GEM is typically the dominant species of atmospheric Hg globally (Ebinghaus et al, 2002;Gustin and Jaffe, 2010;Pandey et al, 2011), and the only species subject to significant LRAT (Driscoll et al, 2013;Nguyen et al, 2009;Selin, 2009).…”

Section: S Mclagan Et Al: Passive Air Sampling Of Gaseous Elemenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…GOM and PBM have much shorter atmospheric residence times and are deposited closer to their source locations (Lin et al, 2006;Pandey et al, 2011;Skov et al, 2007). Thus GEM is typically the dominant species of atmospheric Hg globally (Ebinghaus et al, 2002;Gustin and Jaffe, 2010;Pandey et al, 2011), and the only species subject to significant LRAT (Driscoll et al, 2013;Nguyen et al, 2009;Selin, 2009). The exact proportional make-up of TGM is dependent on proximity to Hg sources and the concentration of atmospheric oxidants (Selin et al, 2007;Skov et al, 2004;Sprovieri et al, 2010).…”

Section: S Mclagan Et Al: Passive Air Sampling Of Gaseous Elemenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Passive air sampling of gaseous elemental mercury: a critical review

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Because gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) is distributed globally through the atmosphere, reliable means of measuring its concentrations in air are important. Passive air samplers (PASs), designed to be cheap, simple to operate, and to work without electricity, could provide an alternative to established active sampling techniques in applications such as (1) long-term monitoring of atmospheric GEM levels in remote regions and in developing countries, (2) atmospheric mercury source identification and characterization through finely resolved spatial mapping, and (3) the recording of personal exposure to GEM. An effective GEM PAS requires a tightly constrained sampling rate, a large and stable uptake capacity, and a sensitive analytical technique. None of the GEM PASs developed to date achieve levels of accuracy and precision sufficient for the reliable determination of background concentrations over extended deployments. This is due to (1) sampling rates that vary due to meteorological factors and manufacturing inconsistencies, and/or (2) an often low, irreproducible and/or unstable uptake capacity of the employed sorbents. While we identify shortcomings of existing GEM PAS, we also reveal potential routes to overcome those difficulties. Activated carbon and nanostructured metal surfaces hold promise as effective sorbents. Sampler designs incorporating diffusive barriers should be able to notably reduce the influence of wind on sampling rates.

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Section: S Mclagan Et Al: Passive Air Sampling Of Gaseous Elemenmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: S Mclagan Et Al: Passive Air Sampling Of Gaseous Elemenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: S Mclagan Et Al: Passive Air Sampling Of Gaseous Elemenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Passive air sampling of gaseous elemental mercury: a critical review

et al. 2016

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“…Gold amalgamation preconcentration, followed by thermal desorption (TD) in Ar carrier gas and detection via atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS), is a commonly used method for quantifying atmospheric elemental mercury vapor, Hg 0 (g) (hereafter referred to as gaseous elemental mercury, GEM) (Schroeder et al, 1995;Gustin and Jaffe, 2010;Pandy et al, 2011). Coupled with various sample capture and pretreatment methods, the above measurement scheme is also used for quantitative analysis of atmospheric gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) (Stratton and Lindberg, 1995;Landis et al, 2002;Lyman et al, 2007), total gaseous mercury (TGM ≡ GEM + GOM) , atmospheric particle-bound mercury (PBM) (Landis et al, 2002), atmospheric total mercury (THg ≡ GEM + GOM + PBM) (Jaffe et al, 2005), and total aqueous Hg (USEPA, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved methods for signal processing in measurements of mercury by Tekran<sup>®</sup> 2537A and 2537B instruments

Ambrose

2017

Atmos. Meas. Tech.

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Abstract. Atmospheric Hg measurements are commonly carried out using Tekran ® Instruments Corporation's model 2537 Hg vapor analyzers, which employ gold amalgamation preconcentration sampling and detection by thermal desorption (TD) and atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS). A generally overlooked and poorly characterized source of analytical uncertainty in those measurements is the method by which the raw Hg atomic fluorescence (AF) signal is processed. Here I describe new software-based methods for processing the raw signal from the Tekran ® 2537 instruments, and I evaluate the performances of those methods together with the standard Tekran ® internal signal processing method. For test datasets from two Tekran ® instruments (one 2537A and one 2537B), I estimate that signal processing uncertainties in Hg loadings determined with the Tekran ® method are within ±[1 % + 1.2 pg] and ±[6 % + 0.21 pg], respectively. I demonstrate that the Tekran ® method can produce significant low biases (≥ 5 %) not only at low Hg sample loadings (< 5 pg) but also at tropospheric background concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) and total mercury (THg) (∼ 1 to 2 ng m −3 ) under typical operating conditions (sample loadings of 5-10 pg). Signal processing uncertainties associated with the Tekran ® method can therefore represent a significant unaccounted for addition to the overall ∼ 10 to 15 % uncertainty previously estimated for Tekran ® -based GEM and THg measurements. Signal processing bias can also add significantly to uncertainties in Tekran ® -based gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) and particle-bound mercury (PBM) measurements, which often derive from Hg sample loadings < 5 pg. In comparison, estimated signal processing uncertainties associated with the new methods described herein are low, ranging from within ±0.053 pg, when the Hg thermal desorption peaks are defined manually, to within ±[2 % + 0.080 pg] when peak definition is automated. Mercury limits of detection (LODs) decrease by 31 to 88 % when the new methods are used in place of the Tekran ® method. I recommend that signal processing uncertainties be quantified in future applications of the Tekran ® 2537 instruments.

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“…Hg 0 is generally considered to be fairly stable in the atmosphere, with an estimated troposphere residence time of one to two years (Pandey et al, 2011). This investigation characterizes variations in the size of distribution of particles that contain mercury Hg(p) using a four-stage MOUDI sampler (PM 18 + , PM 18-10 , PM 10-2.5 and PM 2.5-1 ) at two sampling sites in Central Taiwan.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%