Coupling laser ablation and atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry: an example using mercury analysis of small sections of fish scales.

Mercury is a toxic element that exchanges among air, water, and sediments and biomagnifies into high trophic level organisms. Here, we present a novel combination of laser ablation with relatively low-cost cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry to analyze Hg vaporized from targeted patches of fish scale 300-500 μm square. This method permits the analysis of multiple samples from the same scale, which is useful, because fish scale growth rings may provide an archive from which spatial and temporal trends in environmental Hg can be inferred at fine resolution. The detection limit of the method is 1.5 pg Hg, with a precision of 0.1 pg/μL. Developed using fish scales, the method could be adapted to other media, such as baleen, shells, nails, hair, teeth, wood and, possibly, varved sediments.