Environmental
by Heidi Fleischer and Kerstin Thurow
ven in minor concentrations, elemen- tal mercury and inorganic and organic bound mercury can have harmful biological effects on organisms.1
E Mercury
and other toxic elements can enter the en- vironment through industrial pollution2 municipal waste,3
ously high levels of exposure.1 or
and may lead to danger- Industrially
treated wood often contains preservatives that have toxic chemicals or additives, in- cluding compounds of mercury,4
chromium, lead, and other harmful elements or substances.5
cadmium, The German waste wood regu-
lations require a limit of 0.4 mg/kg in dried wood material.6
Determination of mercury content using inductively coupled
plasma-mass spectrometry Today, a multitude of analytical systems and methods are used to provide sensitive deter- mination of total mercury content. In addition to spectrophotometric7
and radiometric8–10
determination, spectroscopic techniques in- clude mercury cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy (cold vapor AAS),2,11–13
inductively
coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES),13
spectroscopy (cold vapor ICP-OES).14–16
and cold vapor ICP-optical emission Of in-
creasing importance is ICP-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) due to its high sensitivity, good inter- ference control, analysis speed, and possibility for multielement analysis.17–20
In the study presented,18 a multielement method
for sensitive determination of total mercury in wood material using ICP-MS was developed. Sample preparation was performed using mi- crowave digestion with two acid mixtures and two vessel types. After validation, 43 real wood samples of different origin and treatment were analyzed and the results were compared to spectroscopic methods such as classic and cold vapor ICP-OES.
Determination of Total Mercury Content in Wood Materials, Part 2: ICP-MS—A Multielement Method Experimental
Standards and calibration solutions All solutions for calibration, samples, and rins- ing were prepared using ultrapure water and Suprapur® nitric acid (65%, v/v) and Suprapur hydrochloric acid (30%, v/v) (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany). The following standards and calibra- tion solutions were also purchased from Merck:
ICP multielement standard IV with 23 elements, and ICP Hg and Lu standard. The latter was used as the internal standard (ISTD). The methods were validated using the reference material ERM-CD100 from the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM, Berlin, Germany). Forty-three real wood samples of different origin, age, and degree of treatment were analyzed.
Table 1 – Elements, isotopic masses, and measurement parameters Name Li B
Isotopic mass Tuning mode 7
Mg Al Cr
Mn Fe Co Ni
Cu Zn Ga Sr
Ag Cd Ba Lu
Hg Tl
Pb
11 24 27 52 55 56 79 60 63 66 69 88
107 111 137 175 202 205
206, 207, 208 AMERICAN LABORATORY • 6 • SEPTEMBER 2013
NoGas NoGas NoGas NoGas He He
He, HEHe He He He He He
NoGas He
NoGas, He NoGas
Integration time (sec) 0.10 0.30 0.10 0.30 0.30 0.30
0.30 and 0.30 0.30 0.30 0.50 0.30 0.30 0.10 0.30
0.10 and 0.30 0.10
NoGas, He, HEHe 0.10, 0.30, 0.30 He He
1.00 0.30 0.30
Analyte/ISTD Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte Analyte ISTD
Analyte Analyte Analyte
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