Personal monitoring technique for mercury vapor in air and determination by flameless atomic absorption.

Abstract

A method is described for the collection of air samples containing mercury vapor and subsequent determination by cold vapor atomic absorption (AA) analysis. The mercury vapor is trapped in a small glass tube containing hopcalite granules. Mercury is removed from the hopcalite by treatment with nitric acid. The mercury is reduced to elemental form with stannous chloride and the determination is completed by cold vapor atomic absorption, using either an AA spectrophotometer or a mercury vapor detector. Nanogram quantities of mercury can be measured accurately, using a minimum of field sampling equipment. Since air sample volume is unlimited, the method can be applied to a wide range of vapor concentrations. In addition to personal monitoring, stack and community air quality measurements can be performed with this technique.