Mercury speciation by liquid chromatography coupled with on-line chemical vapour generation and atomic fluorescence spectrometric detection (LC-CVGAFS)

Optimized elution conditions were provided in the three complexing agents. The detection limits (LODc) for inorganic mercury, methylmercury, ethylmercury and phenylmercury, in the optimized conditions complexed with thiols were about 16, 18, 18 and 20 pg (as mercury), respectively, a relative standard deviation (R.S.D) ranging between 1.5 and 2.0%, and a linear dynamic range between 0.1 and 100 ng injected. LC-DAD-CVGAFS method has been validated by analysing two certificate reference material, DORM-2 and NIES CRM 13, obtaining 98 ± 6 and 97 ± 5% of methylmercury recovered, respectively.