Development of a technique for mercury speciation and quantification using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

One element of concern to DOE is mercury. Mercury was used extensively at the DOE facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee from 1950 to 1963 in the process of making lithium deuteride, a component of nuclear weapons. Although both the inorganic and organometallic forms of mercury are toxic to humans, the organic compounds are often more toxic. Since the toxicity of mercury is a function of its chemical form, an understanding of the interactions between commercially discharged mercury, naturally occurring mercury, and the environment in which they are present is vital. In this report, the authors have been investigating gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) for the analysis of both the organometallic and inorganic forms of mercury in the same environmental sample (e.g., solutions, soils, and sludges). Although gas chromatography is the classical technique for analyzing organic molecules, (e.g., organometallic compounds) little has been done on the analysis of inorganic compounds. In a previous publication, the authors described how a solid phase microextraction (SPME) fiber could be used to sample organomercurials from aqueous samples. An alkylation reaction was then carried out to transform chemically mercury nitrate into dimethylmercury; subsequent GC/MS analysis of this compound permitted quantification of the inorganic constituent. Subsequently, several different alkylation reagents have been synthesized that methylate any inorganic mercury compound to methylmercury iodide. Here, the authors report results on alkylation reaction time and the effect of pH on the population of the product