Optimization of supercritical fluid extraction-gas chromatography of methylmercury in marine samples

Microwave treatment of biological samples for methylmercury determination by high performance liquid chromatography–cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry

“…3 The Westöö method, 4,5 based on successive extractions and back-extractions with organic solvents and an aqueous complexing agent, is the most commonly used procedure for the extraction of methylmercury from biological samples. Other isolation methods are also applied to the extraction of organomercury compounds from biological tissues, such as acid leaching or alkaline digestion using conventional heating sources [6][7][8] or using steam distillation, 9,10 ultrasonic energy [11][12][13][14] or supercritical fluid extraction 15,16 to decrease the extraction time. The main disadvantages of the above procedures are the low recoveries reported for methylmercury, the number of extraction steps involved, the time required and the amount of solvent consumed.…”

Chemical Processes in Marine Environments

“…In the optimization of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of methyl mercury in marine samples, the effect of 8 variables is considered: CO2, flow-rate, density, extraction cell temperature, static extraction time, nozzle and trap temperature, amount of hydrochloric acid and contact time between acid and sample before the extraction (Cela-Torrijos et al 1996). A 26-experiment folded Plackett-Burman factorial design (2 8 x 31 32 + 2 central points) was used.…”

An international proficiency test as a tool to evaluate mercury determination in environmental matrices

“…For organometallic speciation, such as determination of methylmercury or ethylmercury, the following are commonly used:  supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) [50,51];  microwave digestion [37,48,52];  derivatization [53,54];  high-performance liquid-chromatography (HPLC) [55,56]; or,  gas-chromatography (GC) [53 57] Because of the toxicity of organometallic species, the performance of the methodologies used on their quantification has been extensively studied and an excellent review of the methods tested in collaborative trials, and the certification of reference materials, can be found in Quevauviller et al [58].…”