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Total Mercury Determination in Muscle and Liver Tissue Samples from Brazilian Amazon Fish Using Slurry Sampling

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Abstract

This paper presents a slurry sampling method for total mercury determination by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) in tissue of fish from the Amazon. The tissue samples were lyophilized and macerated, and then the slurry samples were prepared by putting 20 mg of tissue, added to a solution containing Triton X-100, Suprapur HNO3, and zirconium nitrate directly in sampling vials of a spectrometer. Mercury standard solutions were prepared under the same conditions as the slurry samples. The slurry samples and the mercury standard solutions were sonicated for 20 s. Twenty microliters of slurry samples were injected into the graphite tube, which contained an internal wall lined with tungsten carbide. Under these conditions, it was possible to thermally stabilize the mercury up to an atomization temperature of 1700 °C. The method was validated by mercury determination in reference materials DORM-4 and DOLT-4. The LOD and LOQ were 0.014 and 0.045 mg kg−1, respectively, and recovery percentages in relation to the concentration values were certified in the order of 98%.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Brazilian research funding agencies FAPESP (Processes: 2010/51332-5 and 2013/21297-1) and ANEEL/ESBR- P&D: 6631-0001/2012/Contract Jirau 004/201 for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, Brazil

    João Vitor de Queiroz, Izabela da Cunha Bataglioli, Alis Correia Bittarello, Grasieli de Oliveira & Pedro de Magalhães Padilha

  2. Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Botucatu, Brazil

    José Cavalcante Souza Vieira, Cilene do Carmo Federici Padilha & Pedro de Magalhães Padilha

  3. Biochemistry Department, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, USA

    Camila Pereira Braga

Authors
  1. João Vitor de Queiroz
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  2. José Cavalcante Souza Vieira
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  3. Izabela da Cunha Bataglioli
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  4. Alis Correia Bittarello
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  5. Camila Pereira Braga
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  6. Grasieli de Oliveira
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  7. Cilene do Carmo Federici Padilha
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  8. Pedro de Magalhães Padilha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Cavalcante Souza Vieira.

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All the work in this paper that involved animal experimentation was approved by the Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals (CEUA) of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics (FMVZ) of the São Paulo State University (UNESP), School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Botucatu, Brazil, under the number of protocol 110/2015.

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de Queiroz, J.V., Vieira, J.C.S., da Cunha Bataglioli, I. et al. Total Mercury Determination in Muscle and Liver Tissue Samples from Brazilian Amazon Fish Using Slurry Sampling. Biol Trace Elem Res 184, 517–522 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-017-1212-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-017-1212-y

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