Simultaneous Determination of Arsenic and Mercury in Drinking Water by Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry

Objective To explore the method for simultaneous determination of arsenic and mercury in drinking water. Methods Atomic fluorescence spectrometry was applied for simultaneous determination of arsenic and mercury in drinking water. The best working conditions of the determination, such as the height of flame of atomizer, current of hollow cathode lamp, reducer, acidity and required amount of NaBH 4 were defined in this assay. Results The determination range of arsenic, the correlation coefficient and detection limit for arsenic were 0～40 ng/ml,0 999 5 and 0 10 ng/ml respectively, and were 0～80 ng/ml, 0 999 3 and 0 02 ng/ml for mercury respectively. The precisions and recovery rates of the simultaneous determination of arsenic and mercury in drinking water were 0 94%～5 61% and 94%～110%. Conclusion This method with advantages such as simple, rapid, sensitive, high accuracy and less interference, was suitable for simultaneous determination of arsenic and mercury in drinking water.