Application of a chelating resin to the determination of trace amounts of mercury in natural waters

Abstract

A chelating resin coupled with the reduction-aeration technique was applied to the determination of parts per 10¹² levels of mercury in environmental samples. The method involves the concentration of mercury from an acidified sample using the chelating resin and subsequent digestion of the resin with concentrated nitric acid, followed by determination of mercury by atomic-absorption spectrophotometry. The limit of detection of the method using a 10–1 sample of water is 10 ng. The recoveries of inorganic mercury added to sea and river water samples at a level of 500 ng per 5 l were 98.4 and 95.7% with coefficients of variation of 2.8 and 2.3%, respectively.