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Abstract
Chemical speciation of toxic elements released into the environment is of fundamental importance in understanding their environmental behaviour and ultimate fate, as well as in assessing their ecotoxicity and associated human health risks. This paper describes the research and development activities culminating in an instrumental analytical methodology for speciating several volatile forms of mercury in the atmosphere: elemental mercury; mercuric chloride; methylmercuric chloride; and dimethyl mercury. The noble metals, silver and gold, as well as numerous chemically impregnated or untreated sorbent materials (including several special chromatographic supports) were evaluated to determine their collection efficiency, release characteristics, and selectivity, with respect to the candidate mercury species. On the basis of these laboratory tests, the materials ultimately selected for sequential collection of the four mercury species were Chromosorb W treated with hydrochloric acid vapour, Tenax GC, Carbosieve B, and gold wire. Pyrolysis was employed to convert the mercury compounds to elemental mercury for the purpose of detection and quantification by resonance atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry.
