Abstract
Analysis of alkyl and aryl mercury compounds by gas chromatographic techniques is documented in the literature. It is also accepted that extraction procedures presently utilized to separate these compounds from biological samples need to be critically reevaluated and subsequently to be refined. Use of benzene as solvent has been recommended to avoid ghost peaks in the gas chromatogram and also because the retention times for methylmercuric compounds and inorganic mercury compounds are identical in ether. In our laboratories we have discovered that the retention times for methyl mercury and inorganic mercury compounds are identical even in benzene. It has been discovered that this apparent difficulty can be used to advantage for determination of total mercury by gas chromatography, as well as for subsequent analysis of methyl mercury compounds by reextraction of the organic mercury from the organic solvents inito an aqueous layer with gas chromatographic analysis performed on the organic solvent layers.