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Methylmercury monitoring in rainwater samples using in situ ethylation in combination with GC–AFS and GC–ICP–MS techniques
Author(s) -
Holz J.,
Kreutzmann J.,
Wilken R.D.,
Falter R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
applied organometallic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1099-0739
pISSN - 0268-2605
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0739(199910)13:10<789::aid-aoc908>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - methylmercury , chemistry , mercury (programming language) , environmental chemistry , detection limit , chromatography , analytical chemistry (journal) , bioaccumulation , computer science , programming language
In a monitoring study an analytical technique with atomic fluorescence (AFS) detection was used for methylmercury determination in atmospheric precipitation from the Baltic Sea at ultra‐trace level. The methylmercury values in atmospheric precipitation obtained by the AFS system ranged from below the detection limit to 0.32 ng l −1 . The concentrations of methylmercury made up about 1–4% of the total mercury concentrations. Recently, when artifact formation of methylmercury had become an issue the analytical technique used was checked with a stable enriched mercury isotope for artifact formation of methylmercury during analysis. The analytical system, normally coupled with atomic fluorescence detection, was used with a mass spectroscopy, (ICP–MS) detector for isotope‐specific mercury detection. The samples were spiked just before analysing with 200 Hg 2+ . A possible unintentional transformation into methylmercury during the analytical procedure could be detected with the isotope‐specific methylmercury determination method. The results have shown that a direct ethylation of methylmercury in an atmospheric precipitation sample by sodium tetraethylborate produced no significant amount of artifactural methylmercury due to the spiked enriched 200 Hg 2+ . However when the water vapour distillation was applied for aqueous rain samples containing visible particles, an artifactural formation of methylmercury was observable. The particles were responsible for this formation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.