The Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 16 No 2 (2012): 134 – 141

 

 

 

DETERMINATION OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MERCURY SPECIES IN SUNGAI KINTA, PERAK BY REVERSED-PHASE HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY (HPLC) ON-LINE COUPLED WITH ICP-MS

 

(Penentuan Kandungan Spesis Raksa Organik dan Bukan Organik di Sungai Kinta, Perak Melalui Kaedah HPLC-ICP-MS)

 

Norshidah Baharuddin 1*, Norashikin Saim 2, Rozita Osman 2, Sharifuddin Md. Zain 3,

Hafizan Juahir 4, Siti Rafzah Saari 1

 

1Sirim Berhad, 40911 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

 2Faculty of Applied Sciences,

Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

3Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science,

Universiti Malaya, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

4Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Study,

Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author: shidah@sirim.my

 

 

Abstract

This paper describes a simple method for mercury speciation in river water samples of Sungai Kinta, Perak. Separation and measurement were done by high-performance liquid chromatography on-line with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS). Separation of mercury species was accomplished within 6 minutes on an AQ C18 4.6mm i.d x 150mm, 5µm reversed phase column with 0.1% (w/v) L-cysteine as  mobile phase. Under the optimum instrumental conditions, recoveries of 101-104% for MeHg+ and 96 – 104% for Hg2+ were obtained with experimental detection limits of 1ngL-1 for inorganic mercury and 1.5µgL-1 for organic mercury.

 

Keywords:  HPLC/ICP-MS, reversed phase, L-cysteine, mobile phase

 

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