Methods of analysis by the U. S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory-Determination of organic plus inorganic mercury in filtered and unfiltered natural water with cold vapor; atomic fluorescence spectrometry

TL;DRAbstract

An analytical method using cold vapor-atomic fluorescence spectrometry was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2001 for the determination of organic plus inorganic mercury in filtered and unfiltered natural water. This method was developed to eliminate the use of acid dichromate preservative and to provide capability to measure ambient mercury concentrations in natural water. Dissolved mercury includes all oxidizable mercury species present in natural water that has been filtered through a 0.45- micrometer pore size capsule filter. Wholewater recoverable mercury includes dissolved mercury species and mercury species adsorbed to particulate matter in unfiltered natural water. Mercury species can include elemental mercury, mercury (II), mercury (II) complexes, various alkyl- and phenylmercury compounds, and other forms of mercury. In this method, samples are collected and processed according to standard U.S. Geological Survey protocols. Samples are preserved onsite with 6N hydroch

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