Determination of organic and inorganic mercury species in water and sediment samples by HPLC on-line coupled with ICP-MS.

This paper describes a preconcentration method for Hg(2+) and MeHg(+) in water samples using sodium diethyldithiocarbamate immobilized in polyurethane foam (PU-NaDDC) and an extraction method for several mercury species in sediment samples, including MeHg(+), EtHg(+) and PhHg(+), which is simple, rapid, and uses a single organic solvent. Separation and measurement were done by high-performance liquid chromatography on-line with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS). Initially, the test of recovery was applied using procedures compatible with HPLC.

A multinjection strategy for mercury speciation.

A multiinjection strategy has been developed to increase the sampling throughput of the high-performance liquid chromatography determination of inorganic-mercury, methylmercury, ethylmercury and phenylmercury. The method involves the injection of samples each 3.5min, in spite of the fact that phenylmercury retention time corresponds to 9.

Evaluation of the salt accumulation process during inundation in water resource of Contas river basin (Bahia-Brazil) applying principal component analysis.

The high salinization in some reservoirs of the Contas river basin (Bahia-Brazil) has been erroneously attributed only to concentration by evaporation. However, recent studies of this basin have shown that in period of intense rainfalls, occur an increase of the saline concentration in the flowing rivers of the reservoirs. The application of statistical methods (cluster and principal components analysis) have shown that this fact can be attributed to the discharge of saline waters from the small reservoirs of every drained area, provoked by inundation, is also an important factor in the salinization process.