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DIRECT MERCURY ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SOLIDS BY ICPMS WITH ON-LINE SAMPLE ASHING AND MERCURY PRE-CONCENTRATION USING THE DIRECT MERCURY ANALYZER
Citation:
Heithmar, E M., C G. Rosal, AND J V. Cizdziel. DIRECT MERCURY ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SOLIDS BY ICPMS WITH ON-LINE SAMPLE ASHING AND MERCURY PRE-CONCENTRATION USING THE DIRECT MERCURY ANALYZER. Presented at 2002 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry, Scottsdale, AZ, January 6-11, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
The overall goals of the task are to apply NERL's core capability in advanced chemical science and technology for maximum benefit in estimating exposures of ecosystems and humans to chemical stressors and to identify emerging pollution concerns, in particular long-range airborne transport of contaminants. This task comprises several subtasks, each with individual objectives:
Subtask 1: screen exposures of National Park PRIMENet ecosystems to chemical stressors, identifying indications of exposure requiring further evaluation, and use these samples evaluate new analytical methods as replacements for standard methods in future assessments of ecosystem contaminant exposures.
Subtask 2: evaluate a new mercury analytical approach with superior performance on complex solid matrices such as biological tissues, and apply the approach to estimating exposure of ecosystems and humans to mercury.
Subtask 3: determine distribution patterns of chemical contaminants in the southern Sierra Nevada Range of California, investigate topographic and weather factors that may influence the distributions, and determine if a correlation exists between contaminant distributions and extirpation patterns of the mountain yellow-legged frog.
Subtask 4: provide analytical methods to measure a number of inorganic and organic arsenic species in a variety of environmental matrices, elucidate the environmental transformations undergone by organoarsenic animal-feed additives, and determine if the potential exists for substantially increased exposure of humans and aquatic organisms to arsenic.
Description:
A Direct Mercury Analyzer based on sample combustion and mercury concentration by gold amalgamation, followed by atomic absorption determination, was interfaced with a quadrupole and a magnet sector ICPMS. In this paper, we discuss design and operating parameters and evaluate performance compared to alternative methods.