Reduction of organic mercury in water, urine, and blood by sodium borohydride for direct determination of total mercury content

S. Margel, J. Hirsh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have established the optimal conditions for use of sodium borohydride as the reducing agent before the direct determination of mercury in water, urine, and blood by atomic absorption spectroscopy. We evaluated the effects of pH, temperature, and cupric sulfate concentration on the direct determination of both organic and inorganic compounds of mercury. Accurate and precise quantification of mercury requires that the pH be between 9.3 and 9.5, the reaction temperature above 25°C, the reaction time longer than 1 min, and, for urine samples only, the cupric sulfate concentration 10 μmol/L. The detection limit of the method is 1 to 2 ng and the precision (CV) is 3.8% for blood and 4.0% for urine.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)243-245
Number of pages3
JournalClinical Chemistry
Volume30
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1984
Externally publishedYes

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