Determination of mercury in sediment samples by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

The direct analysis of mercury in sediment samples from Minamata Bay, Kumamoto, Japan was studied using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Two sediment and one soil certified reference material were analysed and used to construct the calibration curve. Direct analysis of sediment samples without internal standardization yielded satisfactory results. Elemental speciation and particle size within the studied range did not appear to significantly affect the measurements. With the LA-ICP-MS system, a sample throughput of 10 per h and a detection limit of 0.02 mg kg 21 was achieved. Analytical results of 14 sediment samples using the present system were in good agreement with those obtained by isotope dilution cold vapour generation ICP-MS.

Method development for the determination of cadmium, copper, lead, selenium and thallium in sediments by slurry sampling electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and isotopic dilution calibration

“…It was interesting to observe that, for the three investigated certified reference sediment, PACS-2 Marine Sediment, MESS-2 Marine Sediment and SRM 1646a Estuarine Sediment, all concentrations values were in agreement with the certified values, independent of the selected particle size. This fact was also reported in other works [5,[39][40][41]. One explanation would be that Cd, Se and Tl are volatile and mobile [41], with an effective extraction to the liquid phase of the slurry.…”

The Use of Hyphenated Spectrometric Techniques for the Environmental Forensic Assessment of Non-Traditional Pollutants and Degradates in the Greater Florida Everglades

“…Relatively few applications have been reported on "real" samples and they are often related to a single or few analytes (Tao et al, 2002;Seltzer et al, 2003;Boulyga et al, 2004, Becagglia et al, 2006.…”

“…About a dozen manuscripts have been published in the last 13 years discussing the use of LA-ICP-MS and, to a lesser extent, LA-ICP-OES for the analysis of soils and sediments (Litche 1995;Hoffman 1997;Baker et al, 1999;Musil et al, 2000;Klem et al, 2001;Tao et al, 2002;Mikolas et al, 2002;Boulyga et al, 2004;Gilon 2005;Beccaglia et al, 2006;Hubova et al, 2007;Fernandez et al, 2008).…”

“…The presence of large particles requires the use of either large laser spot sizes (of about 1 -2 mm) which may not be available in some UV-lasers; or the ablation of numerous craters (30-100 craters) to achieve a representative sampling of the bulk soil, which may not be practical in terms of time of analysis (Hofmman et al, 1997). Reported accuracy on laser ablation of soils has been generally ≤ 20% and ranging from 5 to 100% depending on many variables such as elements under study, sample preparation, concentration range, standard reference materials and calibration strategies (Litche 1995;Hoffman 1997;Baker et al, 1999;Musil et al, 2000;Klem et al, 2001;Tao et al, 2002;Mikolas et al, 2002;Boulyga et al, 2004;Gilon 2005;Beccaglia et al, 2006;Hubova et al, 2007;Fernandez et al, 2008).…”

“…Some limitations remain on the existing methods; such as: a) these are either optimized for single element determinations (Tao et al, 2002;Boulyga et al, 2004) or for a limited suite of elements (Hubova et al, 2007;Mikolas et al, 2002;Boulyga et al, 2004;Fernandez et al, 2004), b) sample preparation compromises the quantitation of volatile compounds (Litche 1995), c) sample preparation remains labor intensive (Hubova et al, 2007;Musil et al, 2000;Mikolas et al, 2002), and/or requires the use of binders (Musil et al, 2000;Beccaglia et al, 2006;Mikolas et al, 2002;Mason et al, 2006;Boulyga et al, 2004), d) complex or expensive quantitation strategies are required to improve accuracy and precision (Baker et al, 1999;Hoffman et al, 1997;Hubova et al, 1997;Boulyga et al, 2004) or e) the effect of sample heterogeneity has not been effectively addressed (Hofmman et al, 1997;Klem et al, 2001;Boulyga et al, 2004;Fernandez et al, 2008).…”