Determination of ultra-low volatile mercury concentrations in sulfur-rich gases and liquids

摘要

Determining mercury (Hg) concentrations in a wide range of naturally occurring liquids (i.e., groundwater, hydrothermal fluids, acid mine drainage, submarine groundwater discharge, etc.) and gases, (i.e., volcanic and hydrothermal emissions, flue gas, natural gas, land fill gas, etc.) has obstacles due to the presence of H2S in many of such samples. The classical approach of trapping Hg on gold traps comes up against its limits due to "poisoning" of the traps by H2S and problems for its determination by cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CV-AFS). Due to low concentrations of Hg in these sample types it is often necessary to collect large amounts of liquid or gas in excess of 20 L, which makes transport to the laboratory difficult. With this in mind we developed a portable method for the collection of Hg from gases and liquids rich in H2S.