Determination of Mercury at Ultra-Low Levels

With detection limits below 1.0 ppt and linearity of 10ppm the PSA Millennium Merlin range of mercury detectors from PS Analytical (UK) leads the way for the determination of mercury at ultra-low levels. Utilising Cold Vapour Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry the Millennium range conforms to the most important methodologies for mercury, including EPA 1631, EPA 245.7, ISO 17852, and ASTM 6784-02 and offers an optional AAS detector and speciation capabilities.

A recent application utilised the Millennium range for the analysis of fish and shellfish. Consumption of Hg-containing fish frequently can cause damages to human nerves and organs. The accuracy of the method was validated using a NIST certified mercury reference material. Excellent agreement was obtained with the certified value. The precision on food samples prepared in duplicate was typically below 3%, which is excellent given the complex nature of the samples. For this application the instrument detection limit was found to be 0.2 ng/l. The method detection limit was found to be 0.25 ng/g.