Inorganic and organic mercury analysis by HPTLC and in situ densitometric detection. Application to real samples

Inorganic mercury and some organo‐mercury species have been separated as dithizonates by HPTLC and determined in situ at the subnanogram level by densitometric automatic scanning of the plate. The extraction efficiency of the dithizonates was tested at pH 1, 7, and 10. The R f values for HgD, CH 3 HgD, C 2 H 5 HgD, and C 6 H 5 HgD are 0.15, 0.32, 0.35, and 0.28 respectively. The recovery of the tested mercury species in simulated and real samples has been investigated. Conditioning of the plates with NH 3 prior to elution eliminates interference by many other metal ions. Some examples of real sample analysis (tap water, sea water, human urine) are reported.