The determination of total gaseous mercury in air at background levels
1979; Elsevier BV; Volume: 110; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0003-2670(01)83526-1
ISSN1873-4324
AutoresF. Šlemr, W. Seiler, C. Eberling, P. Roggendorf,
Tópico(s)Gas Sensing Nanomaterials and Sensors
ResumoA method is described for the determination of the total gaseous mercury in air at concentrations ranging from ca. 0.1 ng m-3 to 1μg m-3. The method is based on the collection of mercury species on gold-coated quartz wool followed by detection with an atomic absorption detector. The collection efficiencies for mercury, dimethylmercury, methyl-mercury(II) chloride, and mercury(II) chloride are nearly quantitative at flow rates up to 10 1 min-1 and at temperatures up to 50°C. The absolute detection limit of the method is 20 pg of mercury. Under field conditions the precision of the analytical procedure was 14.5% (n=5) for 400-l samples of air and a mercury concentration of 1.5 ng m-3. Measurements of the mercury distribution in the atmosphere show an ambient background level in clean air masses of 1.0–4.0 ng m-3.
Referência(s)