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Speciation of mercury in soil and sediment by selective solvent and acid extraction

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Abstract

In order to characterize the mercury hazard in soil, a sequential extraction scheme has been developed to classify mercury species based on their environmental mobility and/or toxicity for either routine lab analysis or on-site screening purposes. The alkyl mercury species and soluble inorganic species that contribute to the major portion of potential mercury toxicity in the soil are extracted by an acidic ethanol solution (2% HCl+10% ethanol solution) from soil matrices as "mobile and toxic" species. A High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system coupled with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP–MS) detection has been developed to further resolve the species information into soluble inorganic species (Hg2+), methylmercury(II) (MeHg+) and ethylmercury(II) (EtHg+) species. Alternatively, these species can be separated into "soluble inorganic mercury" and "alkyl mercury" sub-categories by Solid-Phase Extraction (SPE). A custom Sulfydryl Cotton Fiber (SCF) material is used as the solid phase medium. Optimization of the SCF SPE technique is discussed. Combined with a direct mercury analyzer (DMA-80), the SCF SPE technique is a promising candidate for on-site screening purposes. Following the ethanol extraction, the inorganic mercury species remaining in soil are further divided into "semi-mobile" and "non-mobile" sub-categories by sequential acid extractions. The "semi-mobile" mercury species include mainly elemental mercury (Hg) and mercury-metal amalgams. The non-mobile mercury species mainly include mercuric sulfide (HgS) and mercurous chloride (Hg2Cl2).

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank RCRA, USEPA, SAIC and Allegheny Power Inc. for funding and financial support, as well as Milestone Inc., Agilent Technologies and Duquesne University for instrument and material support.

The authors would like to dedicate this paper to Mr Oliver Fordham who has been an inspiration to the environmental methods development community over the past decade. Mr Fordham after initiating this work passed away this past year and will be missed by all whom he so selflessly served.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metara Inc., 1225 East Arques Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94085, USA

    Y. Han

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA

    H. M. Kingston, H. M. Boylan, G. M. M. Rahman, S. Shah, R. C. Richter, D. D. Link & S. Bhandari

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  1. Y. Han
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  2. H. M. Kingston
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  3. H. M. Boylan
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  4. G. M. M. Rahman
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  5. S. Shah
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  7. D. D. Link
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  8. S. Bhandari
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Correspondence to Y. Han.

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Han, Y., Kingston, H.M., Boylan, H.M. et al. Speciation of mercury in soil and sediment by selective solvent and acid extraction. Anal Bioanal Chem 375, 428–436 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-002-1701-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-002-1701-4

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