A method for screening total mercury in water using a flow injection system with piezoelectric detection

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Accurate and rapid determination of total mercury in water is crucial for environmental monitoring.
• Existing methods for mercury detection can be time-consuming or lack sensitivity for trace levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automatic microgravimetric screening system for fast and sensitive detection of total mercury in water.
• To evaluate the system's performance, including sensitivity, precision, and applicability in natural water samples.

Main Methods:

• Utilized piezoelectric detection with a gold-coated crystal sensor.
• Employed acidic stannous chloride as a reductant to convert mercury species to elemental mercury.
• Regenerated the sensor using a peroxydisulfate solution for continuous analysis.

Main Results:

• The developed system demonstrated high efficiency in retaining various soluble mercury species.
• Achieved high sensitivity, enabling mercury determination at sub-parts-per-billion levels (0.30-1.00 µg/L).
• Exhibited good precision with a relative standard deviation of +/- 2.7% at 0.5 µg/L total mercury.

Conclusions:

• The automatic microgravimetric system provides a rapid and reliable method for total mercury screening in natural waters.
• The gold-coated piezoelectric crystal sensor offers excellent selectivity, free from interference by other metal ions.
• This technology is suitable for effective mercury monitoring in environmental water quality assessments.