Flameless Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry of Mercury by Dispersive and Nondispersive Systems in Combination with Cold-vapor Technique

An atomic fluorescence spectrometer with dispersive and nondispersive systems has been designed and constructed. A flameless atomic fluorescence spectrometric method with the newly constructed spectrometer is described for the determination of mercury at the nanogram level. Mercury is reduced by tin(II) chloride and released from solution by a stream of argon into a quartz fluorescence cell. The fluorescence signal is measured by dispersive and nondispersive systems. Linear analytical working curves covering the mass range of mercury from the detection limits to approximately 10 and 1 μg have been established with dispersive and nondispersive systems, respectively. With the nondispersive system a detection limit of 0.003 ppb or 0.05 ng of mercury could readily be obtained. The present method was satisfactorily applied to the determination of mercury in wastewater samples.