Speciation analysis of mercury in seawater from the lagoon of Venice by on-line pre-concentration HPLC–ICP-MS

Abstract

International audienceA method based on the coupling of HPLC with ICP-MS with an on-line pre-concentration micro-column has been developed for the analysis of inorganic and methyl mercury in the dissolved phase of natural waters. This method allows the rapid pre-concentration and matrix removal of interferences in complex matrices such as seawater with minimal sampling handling. Detection limits of 0.07 ng L−1 for inorganic mercury and 0.02 ng L−1 for methyl mercury have been achieved allowing the determination of inorganic mercury and methyl mercury in filtered seawater from the Venice lagoon. Good accuracy and reproducibility was demonstrated by the repeat analysis of the certified reference material BCR-579 coastal seawater. The developed HPLC separation was shown to be also suitable for the determination of methyl mercury in extracts of the particulate phase

Mercury(ii) and methylmercury determination in water by liquid chromatography hyphenated to cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry after online short-column preconcentration

“…In some cases, gas-chromatography or liquid chromatography was performed to separate mercury species. 9,[15][16][17][18][20][21][22]24,25,29,33,36 In others, selective retention or elution of mercury species was carried out using different complexing agents or eluting agents for each species. 19,26,28,30,31,34,35 A wide variety of detectors have been used, either for offline preconcentration or online ow injection preconcentration.…”

Application of Organometallic Speciation in Clinical Studies

“…Normally, in this case a cooled spray chamber and a postnebulization oxygen addition are required to limit the solvent loading on the plasma, which will lead to quenching of the plasma, and reduce carbon condensation on the cones. In order to meet the LoDs required for environmental analysis or background investigation for clinical studies, offline or online preconcentration on C-18 microcolumns is necessary [163,164]. Typically, the classical nebulizers of ICP-MS produce a rather coarse aerosol and suffer from low analyte transport efficiencies (< 5%).…”

Environmental application of elemental speciation analysis based on liquid or gas chromatography hyphenated to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry—A review

“…Excellent detection limits in the range of 8 ng L −1 for EtHg + to 32 ng L −1 for PhHg + were observed. In an innovative study an HPLC-ICP-MS method with an integrated on-line enrichment procedure was developed by Cairns et al and subsequently applied to investigate mercury in seawater samples from the Lagoon of Venice [62]. Improved LODs of 0.07 ng L −1 for inorganic mercury and 0.02 ng L −1 for MeHg + were reported.…”