Methods for Mercury Determination in Water using the Millennium Merlin Range of Instruments

With new methodologies being accepted throughout the world PSA strives to keep its equipment compatible with these new measures.

P S Analytical's team of applications chemists have, over the past 25 years developed many applications and methods for the determination of mercury, arsenic, selenium, tellurium, antimony and bismuth. Details of many of these applications/methods can be found on our application notes page.

P S Analytical also supplies instrumentation to comply with the more recent AFS based standards methods, as well as the older AAS based methods.

A list of common reference methods from ISO, ASTM and the US EPA can be found below, as well as links to the appropriate PSA instrument utilised for the particular methodology.

METHODS FOR TOTAL MERCURY IN WATER SAMPLES

EPA method 1631 Revision E

This is the latest EPA method for measuring mercury in water. The full name of this method is “Method 1631, Revision E: Mercury in Water by Oxidation, Purge and Trap, and Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry”. The method is based on cold vapor amalgamation atomic fluorescence spectroscopy.

The PSA 10.035 Millennium Merlin 1631 is an ideal instrument for this application, click here for information. This instrument can be used to comply with both EPA 1631 and EPA 245.7. This system can also comply with EPA 245.1 with the addition of the optional AAS detector scope and application Summary: Method 1631, Revision E (the "Method") is for determination of mercury (Hg) in filtered and unfiltered water by oxidation, purge and trap, desorption, and cold-vapor atomic fluorescence, This Method is for determination of Hg in the range of 0.5–100 ng/L. Application may be extended to higher levels by selection of a smaller sample size or by calibration of the analytical system across a higher range. For measurement of blank samples, the Method may be extended to a lower level by calibration to a lower calibration point. An MDL as low as 0.05 ng/L can be achieved for low Hg samples by using a larger sample volume spectrometry (CVAFS).

The PSA 10.035 Millennium Merlin 1631 is an ideal instrument for this application, click here for information.

The method EPA method 1631 revision E can be downloaded from the EPA web site by following the link below:

EPA 1631e Mercury in Water by Oxidation, Purge and Trap, and Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry

EPA method 245.7

This is another new method from the EPA and was designed to measure Hg in water.  The full name of this method is “Method 245.7: Mercury in Water by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry” . The method is based on cold vapor atomic fluorescence and the PSA 10.025 Millennium Merlin is an ideal tool for this methodology.

The PSA 10.035 Millennium Merlin 1631 is also capable of running this method.

Scope and application: Method 245.7 is for determination of mercury (Hg) in filtered and unfiltered water by cold-vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVAFS). It is applicable to drinking water, surface and ground waters, marine water, and industrial and municipal wastewater. The normal calibration range of this method is from 5 ng/L to 100 ng/L, and that range may be extended by dilution of the sample.

The method can be downloaded from the EPA web site by following the link below:

EPA 245.7 Mercury in Water by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry

EPA methods 245.1 and 245.2

These are two older EPA methods and are based on cold vapour atomic absorption, they were developed in the 1970's before atomic fluorescence became a more prominent methodology. The detection limits of thes methods were in the 0.2ppb range. The full names of the methods are “METHOD 245.1: DETERMINATION OF MERCURY IN WATER BY COLD VAPOR ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY” and “method 245.2: Mercury (Automated Cold Vapor Technique)”.

P S Analytical supplies the PSA 10.045 Millennium Merlin AA CV system to run these methods. Also the Millennium Merlin and the Millennium Merlin 1631 systems can run these methods with the addition of the optional AAS detector scope and application: Method 245.1 This procedure1 measures total mercury (organic + inorganic) in drinking, surface,ground, sea, brackish waters, industrial and domestic wastewater. The range of the method is 0.2-10 μg Hg/L. The range may be extended above or below the normal range by increasing or decreasing sample size.

Scope and application: Method 245.2 This method is applicable to surface waters. It may be applicable to saline waters, wastewaters, effluents, and domestic sewages providing potential interferences are not present. The working range is 0.2 to 20.0 μg Hg/L.

These methods can be downloaded from the EPA web site by following the links below:

EPA 245.1 Determination of Mercury in Water by Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

EPA 245.2 Mercury (Automated Cold Vapor Technique)

BS ISO 17852 (Formerly EN 13506)

This is the European standard method for the determination of mercury in water samples. The method is based on Cold Vapour Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry. The full name of the method is “Water quality -- Determination of mercury -- Method using atomic fluorescence spectrometry”.

P S Analytical supplies the PSA 10.025 Millennium Merlin and PSA 10.035 Millennium Merlin 1631 for this method.

Scope and application: ISO 17852:2006 specifies a method for the determination of mercury in drinking, surface, ground and rain water using atomic fluorescence spectrometry. It may be applied to industrial and municipal waste water after an additional digestion step under appropriate conditions. The potential linear dynamic range is approximately 1 nanogram per litre to 100 micrograms per litre. In practice, the working range is often from 10 nanograms per litre to 10 micrograms per litre.

This method can be purchased and downloaded from the ISO website.

This is the European standard method for the determination of mercury in water samples. The method is based on Cold Vapour Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry.

P S Analytical supplies the PSA 10.025 Millennium Merlin and PSA 10.035 Millennium Merlin 1631 for this method.

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