Effects of four organic reagents on non-aqueous phase cold vapor generation of mercury

Generation of volatile elemental mercury was accomplished in non-aqueous media by using solid reductant of potassium borohydride (KBH4) as a derivation reagent. Four organic reagents were used to investigate the non-aqueous phase cold vapor generation (CVG) of mercury, including CCl4, CHCl3, octanol and petroleum. Consequently, these non-aqueous phase CVG was utilized to coupling to atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) for the determination of mercury. The analyte ions were firstly extracted into the organic media from the bulk aqueous phase of analyte/sample solution via an ultrasound-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (UA-DLLME) process and then directly mixed with the solid reductant KBH4 to generate volatile elemental state mercury from Hg(II), which were then rapidly transported to a commercial atomic fluorescence spectrometer for detection. The cold vapor generation efficiency of the proposed technique is comparable to those obtained by using aqueous cold vapor generation. Meanwhile, the analytical performances obtained using these reagents were also investigated and compared.