Development of Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films Technique for Determination of Mercury in Aquatic Systems

The theoretical part of this doctoral thesis deals with determination of mercury and its species in aquatic systems. Special attention is paid to the use in situ sampling technique diffusive gradients in thin films technique (DGT) and its development. Current resin gels used for determination of mercury by DGT technique Duolite GT-73, Chelex-100 and Spheron-Thiol are described. Moreover, new types of resin gels including Iontosorb AV modified by imidazole or 6-mercaptopurine and commercially available titanium dioxide. Preparations of resin gels and their basic tests in model solution according to DGT Research are described. Mercury accumulation in relation to time and basic recovery test were tested and capacity of resins was determined. All tested resins meet the requirements of basic DGT Research tests and relative standard deviations of mercury in recovery tests were lower than 10 %. The sorption capacity of resins varied from 1,5 to 6 µmol.l-1 and decreased in following order: Duolite GT-73 > ISAV-IM > Chelex-100 > Spheron-Thiol > TiO2 > ISAV-MP. Mercury sorption on resins was investigated under conditions similar to those in natural waters. It was found that the ionic strength commonly occurring in natural waters does not affect the determination of mercury. The presence of chlorides significantly affects the determination of mercury using DGT with titanium dioxide and therefore this sorbent can not be recommended for the determination of mercury in sea waters. The accumulated amount of mercury, depending on the pH shows that all the sorbents can be used in natural waters with pH in the range form 4 to 8. Mercury sorption is most affected by the presence of humic acids, especially at ion-exchange resins containing other than thiol functional groups. The exception is titanium dioxide for which physical sorption of humic acid metal complexes is typical. Cadmium and copper in model solutions in the molar balance of the excess mostly influenced the sorption of mercury on Chelex-100 and Spheron-Thiol resins. After laboratory tests, the DGT units with studied sorbents were used for the determination of mercury in natural waters of South Moravia (Svratka, Jihlava and Svitava river). Mercury concentration determined using DGT units containing Duolite GT-73 resin was comparable to the total dissolved concentration of mercury in river water provided by direct determination using AAS technique. Order of magnitude smaller concentrations than the total dissolved mercury concentration were found using DGT containing Spheron-Thiol and ISAV-MP resins. These sorbents are probably able to capture only mercury present in the form of labile complexes. This can be used for speciation analysis if more DGT units with different resins are deployed together. Subtracting the measured DGT Spheron-Thiol or ISAV-MP concentrations from the DGT Duolite GT-73 concentration, information about the amount of mercury present in the form of stabile complexes can be obtained. The amount of mercury determined after application of DGT units containing ISAV-IM, Chelex 100 or TiO2 can probably represent the mercury fraction bound in even weaker complexes than fraction determined by Spheron-Thiol and ISAV-MP DGT