Mercury speciation by a high performance liquid chromatography-atomic fluorescence spectrometry hyphenated system with photo-induced chemical vapour generation reagent in the mobile phase

Speciation of mercury was accomplished by using a simple interface with photo-induced chemical vapour generation in a high performance liquid chromatography-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPLC-AFS) hyphenated system. Acetic acid and 2-mercaptoethanol in the mobile phase were used as photochemical reagent. The operating parameters were optimized to give limits of detection of 0.53 A mu g L-1, 0.22 A mu g L-1, 0.18 A mu g L-1 and 0.25 A mu g L-1 for inorganic mercury, methylmercury, ethylmercury and phenylmercury, respectively. The method was validated with the certified reference material DORM-2 and applied to the analysis of seafood samples. The HPLC-AFS hyphenated system is simple, environmentally friendly, and represents an attractive alternative to the conventional peroxothiosulfate-borohydride method.