Using thermal analysis coupled to isotope dilution cold vapor ICP-MS in the quantification of atmospheric particulate phase mercury

Abstract

An analytical method combining thermal analysis with isotope dilution cold vapor inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, ID-CV-ICP-MS, was developed to study mercury in particulate matter samples collected in urban Detroit, MI. We used this method to quantify mercury in NIST 1633b "mercury in fly ash standard" and determined an average concentration of 0.139 AE 0.009 mg g À1 (RSD 6%), which was within the certified range of 0.141 AE 0.019 mg g À1 determined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology using cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. The method detection limit for each 3 second integration window was approximately 20 fg of mercury. When we compared results from thermal analysis coupled to ID-CV-ICP-MS to a well-established analysis method that combines microwave assisted nitric acid digestion with cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy, mercury concentrations were found to be in good agreement with each other indicating that the former is a suitable technique for quantitative release and analysis of mercury from aerosol matrices. Using this method mercury concentrations in denuded and undenuded fine particulate samples collected in Detroit, MI were quantified. Undenuded filters collected more particulate mercury compared to filters that were denuded using a KCl-coated denuder in 60% of samples. Thermal profiles for samples revealed complex patterns and differences in amounts and release patterns of mercury likely due to temporal differences in meteorology and air shed properties that were evident during sampling. Night time samples that were undenuded revealed the most complexity and may be a reflection of increased partitioning of reactive gaseous mercury to the particle phase with decreasing overnight temperatures and reduced height of the boundary layer. These profiles suggest that binding sites of varying physical and chemical characteristics in particulate matter are available for sorption and/or condensation of reactive gaseous mercury.

Rapid detection of mercury contamination in water by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

“…Consequently, various analytical techniques have evolved over the past decade for the detection and quantication of Hg(II) in water. Among these are inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), 4 colorimetry and chemiluminescence, 5 atomic absorption spectroscopy and X-ray uorescence spectrometry, 6 high performance liquid chromatography, 7 neutron activation analysis (NAA) 8 and enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA). 9 However, most of these analytical methods require time-consuming sample preparation procedures, expensive instrumental infrastructure and, are therefore, not suitable for remote or on-site applications.…”

Recent Developments in the Speciation and Determination of Mercury Using Various Analytical Techniques

“…Regarding the analysis of the environmental biological samples for mercury and its species, most researchers analyzed various water samples (drinking, seawater, wastewater, river, and lake waters) followed by food samples (mostly fish), human hair, and ambient air. Only a few authors determined the concentration of mercury in ambient air and atmospheric particulate matter [ 26 , 48 , 52 , 66 , 119 , 126 ]. Various measurement techniques that can be available for the determination of mercury species in ambient air were reviewed by Pandey et al [ 154 ].…”

Validating an Evaporative Calibrator for Gaseous Oxidized Mercury

“…While the authors obtained great stability, response time, and linearity, the validity of the output still has to be evaluated, especially for low gas concentrations [ 39 ]. To enable low concentration validation, stable [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ] and radioactive [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ] mercury isotopes can be used. While stable mercury isotopes and isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) are more commonly used, radioactive Hg isotopes have proven to be advantageous in situations where contamination and detection limits are problematic.…”