Mercury speciation by HPLC--cold-vapour radiofrequency glow-discharge optical-emission spectrometry with on-line microwave oxidation.

Hollow-cathode (HC) radiofrequency glow-discharge (rf-GD) optical-emission spectrometry (OES) has been used as detector for the determination of inorganic mercury by cold-vapour (CV) generation in a flow-injection (FI) system. Both NaBH4 and SnCl2 were evaluated as reducing reagents for production of mercury CV. The conditions governing the discharge (pressure, He flow rate, and delivered power) and Hg CV generation (NaBH4 or SnCl2 concentration and reagent flow rate) were optimized using both reducing agents. The analytical performance characteristics of FI-CV-rf-GD-OES for mercury detection were evaluated at the 253.6 nm emission mercury line. Detection limits (DL) of 0.2 ng mL(-1) using SnCl2 and 1.8 ng mL(-1) using NaBH4 were obtained (100 microliter sample injections were used). When the optimized experimental conditions using SnCl2 had been determined, the analytical potential of this CV-rf-GD-OES method was investigated as on-line detector for high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) speciation of mercury (Hg(II) and methylmercury). The HPLC-CV-rf-GD-OES detection limits for 100 microliter sample injections were found to be 1.2 and 1.8 ng mL(-1) (as mercury) of inorganic mercury and methylmercury, respectively. The reproducibility observed was below +/- 8% for both species. Finally, the HPLC-CV-rf-GD-OES system developed was successfully applied to the determination of methylmercury (speciation) in two certified reference materials, Dorm-2 and Dolt-2.