DETERMINATION OF MERCURY(II) OXIDE AND MERCURY (II) SULFIDE IN SEDIMENT OF NHUE AND DAY RIVER BASIN

Abstract

  Sediments collected at Nhue and Day Rivers were analyzed for mercury (II) oxit (HgO) andmercury (II) sulfide through selective extraction followed by could vapor atomic absorptionspectrometry (CV-AAS). Organic mercury was first extracted by shaking a sediment samplewith chloroform. In order to separate mercury (II) oxide from mercury (II) sulfide, the residuewas trested with 0.05 M sulfuric acid so as to extract only mercury (II) oxide. Mercury (II)sulfide eaxtracted from the residue with 1M hydrochloric acide contatining 3% sodiumchloride in the presence of copper (I) chloride. The mercury in each extract was determinedby CV-AAS. The recovery of mercury (II) oxide and mercury (II) sulfide were 99.5 and 99.8%respectively.

Keywords: Mercury speciation, selective extration, cold vapor atomic absorptionspectrometry