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. 2020 Dec 18:2020:8867653.
doi: 10.1155/2020/8867653. eCollection 2020.

Comparison of DMA-80 and ICP-MS Combined with Closed-Vessel Microwave Digestion for the Determination of Mercury in Coal

Siyu Zhang  1   2 , Mingxuan Zhou  1   2
Affiliations

Comparison of DMA-80 and ICP-MS Combined with Closed-Vessel Microwave Digestion for the Determination of Mercury in Coal

Siyu Zhang et al. J Anal Methods Chem. .

Abstract

As one of the most widely used techniques for concentration determination of trace elements in coal, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has also been used in several studies for the determination of mercury concentration in coal. ICP-MS after closed-vessel microwave digestion and a Milestone DMA-80 are employed in this study to determine the mercury concentration in coal. Three NIST standard references of coal samples were selected as references to verify the accuracy of the test results. The Au rinse solution (200 μg/L, 5% HNO3) can diminish mercury memory effects to a blank level within 80 seconds. The results showed that ICP-MS can accurately determine the mercury content in mercury standard solutions, but the mercury concentration in most NIST samples after microwave digestion is lower than the detection level of the ICP-MS. The inaccuracy may be due to volatilization of mercury during solid sample digestion process. By contrast, the determined concentrations in NIST samples by the Milestone DMA-80 are very close to the verified values. Therefore, ICP-MS is not recommended to analyze mercury in coal after digestion even in a closed-vessel digestion system, but the mercury direct analyzer (without digestion) is recommended to analyze mercury in coal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Removal effects of mercury memory by different rinse solutions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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