Modified MSIS chamber as a novel gas–liquid separator coupled with the photochemical vapor generation of trace mercury with MP-AES detection

Abstract

New hyphenation of a continuous flow photochemical vapor generator (PVG) to a modified multimode sample introduction system (MSIS) used as a gas–liquid separator and microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometry (MP-AES) was proposed for the analysis of trace mercury. The widened MSIS bottom inlet contributes to an increase in Hg⁰ mass transfer in the gas–liquid separator, allowing mercury determination by MP-AES. After optimizing the PVG reactor conditions and MP-AES instrument parameters, a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.25 ppb was obtained for Hg²⁺. The applicability of the PVG-MSIS-MP-AES method was subsequently demonstrated for trace mercury analysis in two soil CRMs – ERM-CC135a (Contaminated Brickworks soil) and CRM005 (Sewage Amended soil).