Chemical Vapor Generation for Determination of Mercury by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The analytical methods for the determination of mercury using chemical vapor generation (CVG) coupled to atomic spectrometry are reviewed. Chemical reagents such as SnCl₂, KBH₄, and HCOOH were used as reductants for the determination of mercury by CVG‐ICP‐MS in this work, and these analytical methods were compared in terms of sensitivity, limit of detection, and tolerance to interference. The accuracies of the methods were validated by using certified reference materials and spiked water samples. It was found that the proposed UV photo‐CVG‐ICP‐MS with HCOOH as a reductant is the best choice for ultratrace mercury detection for its superior detectability, green nature, and freedom of interference.

Keywords:

• Chemical vapor generation
• inductively coupled plasma
• mass spectrometry
• mercury

Acknowledgements

Xiandeng Hou is grateful for the financial support from the Ministry of Education of China, through grants NCET‐04‐0869 and No.104153. Li Wu acknowledges the financial support of the Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province of China, through grant No.04JY029‐074‐3.