Development of a ‘collect and punch’ cold vapour inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric method for the direct determination of mercury at nanograms per litre levels

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Abstract
A highly sensitive ‘collect and punch’ CV–ICP-MS method for the direct determination of mercury at ng l–1 levels is described. Mercury, after reduction to elemental form with SnCl2, was collected in a glass chamber prior to injection into the plasma and the time resolved acquisition mode was used for signal measurement. This arrangement provided a 10–15-fold enhancement of sensitivity compared with continuous vapour injection. The detection limit (3s) of the method was close to 6 ng l–1. Linear calibration was obtained over three orders of magnitude of concentration. The method was validated through the analysis of NIST SRM 1566a Oyster Tissue. Mercury at the 50 ng l–1 level in aqueous solutions can be determined with a precision of approximately 2%. This method is much simpler than the amalgamation approaches for the determination of mercury at these levels.

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