Determination of trace mercury in soil by flow injection-hydride generation-cold atomic fluorescence spectrometry

Trace mercury in soil was determined by flow injection-hydride generation-cold atomic fluorescence spectrometry.Experimental parameters such as the length of reaction coil,height of quartz furnace atomizer,acidity of the solution,flow rate of the carrier gas and coexisting elements were optimized.It has been found that the length of reaction coil has great influence on the repeatability and shape of the fluorescence signal peak of mercury.Under the optimum conditions,the detection limit was 0.7 ng/L for Hg based on processing of a 1.6 mL sample volume.The relative standard deviation(n=11) for 0.2 μg/L Hg was 2.7%.The method has been applied to the analysis of trace mercury in soil and the determination results accord with the certified values.