Analytical Sciences

Comparison of Chemical Modifiers in Electrothermal Atomization Atomic Absorption Spectrometry with Boron Nitride Tube and Platform Furnaces for Mercury

Shoji IMAI,*¹   Azumi SUGIMOTO,*¹ Mikiko HAYASHI,*¹ Akira YONETANI,*² Etsuro IWAMOTO,*³ and Yasuhisa HAYASHI*⁴

*1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima 770-8502, Japan
*2 Hitachi Science Systems Ltd., Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-0033, Japan
*3 Department of Health Science, Hiroshima Women's University, Hiroshima 734-8558, Japan
*4 Department of Chemistry, Joetsu University of Education, Joetsu, Niigata 943-0815, Japan

The effect of various chemical modifiers (KMnO₄, AgNO₃+KMnO₄, Pd, Rh, Ir and Pd+Rh) on ETAAS of Hg with laboratory-made boron nitride tube and platform furnaces was studied. The effectiveness of the chemical modifier was improved by the use of the ceramic furnaces instead of the graphite furnace. The sensitivity, which gives a maximum absorbance of 0.0044 abs for Hg, is found to be 0.11 ng, and the LOD, based on the variability of the blank (3sigma), is 27 pg using 10 mug of Pd with the non-pyrolytic boron nitride platform furnace. The good recovery of 102±3% was observed for Hg spiked into a hair sample digested by microwave with nitric acid. The observed Hg content in a certified reference material of human hair was in agreement with its certified value.

J-STAGE: View this article in J-STAGE