Determination of organic and inorganic mercury species in water and sediment samples by HPLC on-line coupled with ICP-MS.

This paper describes a preconcentration method for Hg(2+) and MeHg(+) in water samples using sodium diethyldithiocarbamate immobilized in polyurethane foam (PU-NaDDC) and an extraction method for several mercury species in sediment samples, including MeHg(+), EtHg(+) and PhHg(+), which is simple, rapid, and uses a single organic solvent. Separation and measurement were done by high-performance liquid chromatography on-line with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS). Initially, the test of recovery was applied using procedures compatible with HPLC. Under the optimum extraction conditions, recoveries of 96.7, 96.3 and 97.3% were obtained for MeHg(+), EtHg(+), and PhHg(+),…