Determination of mercury by cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry with derivative signal processing

Abstract

A method has been developed for the determination of total mercury by cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (CVAAS) with derivative signal processing. The effects of several parameters on the derivative absorbance values were investigated and the working conditions were optimized. The sensitivity (characteristic mass, which gives a derivative absorbance of 0.0044) and detection limit (3 σ) of the proposed method were 192 and 155 pg, respectively, 72 and 24.5 times better than those of conventional CVAAS. Total mercury in standard reference materials, mussel (GBW08571) and peach leaf (GBW08501) was determined by the proposed method and the obtained values were consistent with the reference values. The proposed method had been applied to the determination of total mercury in cosmetic samples with a recovery range of 92–102%.