Abstract
A trace amount of mercury in sea water was enriched by an electrolysis using a platinum net and a platinum wire electrode.Mercury was deposited on the cathode of platinum net by the first electrolysis at -0.2 V (vs. SCE) of the electrolytic potential when a 1.5 V of voltage was applied, and then dissolved into 125 ml of 1 N nitric acid by the second electrolysis. The amount of the dissolved mercury was determined by a mercury ion selective electrode or a mercury analyser. For the experiments, a specially designed automatic electrolysis apparatus was used.For the quantitative deposition of mercury, it was necessary to electrolyse for 2 hours in 0.5 l of sample solution and 20 hours in 5 l. For the dissolution of the deposited mercury, 510 sec of electrolysis period should be adopted. Co-existing metal ions such as copper(II), lead, cadmium and iron(III) ions did not affect on the recovery of mercury.Under the optimum condition, recovery of mercury was 8393%. This method for the enrichment of mercury could be applied to sample solutions ranging in the mercury concentration from 2 to 200 ppb and the volume from 0.5 to 5 l.
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