MERCURY QUANTIFICATION IN SOILS USING THERMAL DESORPTION AND ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY: PROPOSAL FOR AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF ANALYSIS


Autoria(s): Soares,Liliane Catone; Egreja Filho,Fernando Barboza; Windmoller,Cláudia Carvalhinho; Yoshida,Maria Irene
Data(s)

01/08/2015

Resumo

Despite the considerable environmental importance of mercury (Hg), given its high toxicity and ability to contaminate large areas via atmospheric deposition, little is known about its activity in soils, especially tropical soils, in comparison with other heavy metals. This lack of information about Hg arises because analytical methods for determination of Hg are more laborious and expensive compared to methods for other heavy metals. The situation is even more precarious regarding speciation of Hg in soils since sequential extraction methods are also inefficient for this metal. The aim of this paper is to present a technique of thermal desorption associated with atomic absorption spectrometry, TDAAS, as an efficient tool for quantitative determination of Hg in soils. The method consists of the release of Hg by heating, followed by its quantification by atomic absorption spectrometry. It was developed by constructing calibration curves in different soil samples based on increasing volumes of standard Hg2+ solutions. Performance, accuracy, precision, and quantification and detection limit parameters were evaluated. No matrix interference was detected. Certified reference samples and comparison with a Direct Mercury Analyzer, DMA (another highly recognized technique), were used in validation of the method, which proved to be accurate and precise.

Formato

text/html

Identificador

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-06832015000401100

Idioma(s)

en

Publicador

Sociedade Brasileira de Ciência do Solo

Fonte

Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo v.39 n.4 2015

Palavras-Chave #heavy metal #analytical method #weathered soils
Tipo

journal article