[Determination of alkylmercuric compounds in human body fluids by gas chromatography--atomic absorption spectrophotometry].

In order to detect trace of alkylmercuric compounds in human body fluids, a highly sensitive, selective and rapid method, based on the coupling of gas chromatography with atomic absorption spectrophotometry, has been developed. The transfer-tube was made up of Teflon, with stainless steel tubes in the two sides. The atomization of alkylmercuric compounds was performed in quartz tube. The quantitative determination of alkylmercuric compounds in urine and blood samples collected from the workers exposing to metallic mercury, has been extensively carried out in this work. The optimal Westoo program was used to enrich methylmercuric chloride in samples, Extracts of methylmercuric chloride in benzene were determined by GC-AAS, with a total recovery of more than 90%. Dimethylmercury in samples was extracted once by xylene. Then the extracts were determined, with a total recovery of 65%-70%. The detectable limit for mercury was 0.01ng. The methylation of mercury was confirmed in our experiment. This method can be used for the determination of other metallic compounds.