title: Development of pre-concentration procedure for the determination of Hg isotope ratios in seawater samples.
abstract: Hg concentrations in seawater are usually too low to allow direct (without pre-concentration and removal of salt matrix) measurement of its isotope ratios with multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Therefore, a new method for the pre-concentration of Hg from large volumes of seawater was developed. The final method allows for relatively fast (about 2.5Lh(-1)) and quantitative pre-concentration of Hg from seawater samples with an average Hg recovery of 98±6%. Using this newly developed method we determined Hg isotope ratios in seawater. Reference seawater samples were compared to samples potentially impacted by anthropogenic activity. The results show negative mass dependent fractionation relative to the NIST 3133 Hg standard with δ(202)Hg values in the range from -0.50‰ to -1.50‰. In addition, positive mass independent fractionation of (200)Hg was observed for samples from reference sites, while impacted sites did not show significant Δ(200)Hg values. Although the influence of the impacted sediments is limited to the seawater and particulate matter in very close proximity to the sediment, this observation may raise the possibility of using Δ(200)Hg to distinguish between samples from impacted and reference sites.
authors.affiliation: Trent University, Department of Chemistry, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J7B8, Canada; Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Electronic address: marko.strok@ijs.si.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Štrok
authors.affiliation: Trent University, Department of Chemistry, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J7B8, Canada. Electronic address: hhintelmann@trentu.ca.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hintelmann
authors.affiliation: Trent University, Department of Chemistry, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9J7B8, Canada. Electronic address: briandimock@trentu.ca.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dimock
mesh_terms: D053000:Analytic Sample Preparation Methods / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005591:Chemical Fractionation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008629:Mercury Isotopes / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D008629:Mercury Isotopes
keywords: Hg isotope ratios; Hg pre-concentration; Multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; Seawater