Article: Diminished Mercury Use Creates Uncertain Future for Analyzers

Because the health effects and environmental impact of exposure to even low level concentrations of mercury is so deleterious, the metal needs to be monitored and determined wherever present. Fortunately, instrumentation exists to help meet this mandate. The most common method of determining mercury is cold vapor atomic absorption (CVAAS). In CVAAS, the solution containing the unknown mercury compounds is treated with a strong reducing agent, which converts all mercury ions to metallic mercury. A carrier gas is then passed through the solution to volatilize the mercury metal and carry it into a quartz absorption cell. A mercury vapor lamp producing the characteristic ...

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