New triiodomercurate-modified carbon paste electrode for the potentiometric determination of mercury

A new tetrazolium-triiodomercurate-modified carbon paste electrode has been described for the sensitive and selective determination of mercury. The electrode shows a stable, near-Nernstian response for 1 x 10(-3) to 6 x 10(-6) M [HgI3](-) at 25 degreesC over the pH range of 4.0-9.0, with an anionic slope of 55.5 +/- 0.4 mV. The lower detection limit is 4 x 10(-6) M with a fast response time of 30-50 s. Selectivity coefficients of a number of interfering anions and iodo complexes of some metal ions have been estimated. The interference from many of the investigated ions is negligible. The determination of 1-200 mug/ml of mercury in aqueous solutions shows an average recovery of 98.5% and a mean relative standard deviation of 1.6% at 50.0 mug/ml. The direct determination of mercury in spiked wastewater, metal amalgams and dental alloy gave results that compare favorably with those obtained by the cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometric method. Potentiometric titration of mercury and phenylmercury acetate with standard potassium iodide has been monitored using the developed triiodomercurate-carbon paste electrode (CPE) as an end point indicator electrode. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.