Behavior of KCl sorbent traps and KCl trapping solutions used for atmospheric mercury speciation: stability and specificity

Atmospheric mercury speciation is of paramount importance for understanding the behavior of mercury once it is emitted into the atmosphere as gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) and particulate-bound mercury (PBM). GOM and PBM can also be formed in the atmosphere; their sampling is the most problematic step in the atmospheric mercury speciation. GOM sampling with speciation traps composed of KCl sorbent materials and KCl trapping solutions are commonly used sampling methods, although the research conducted with them at ambient air concentrations is limited. The results of the specificity test demonstrated that the KCl sorbent traps are highly specific when using new traps, while their specificity drops dramatically when they are reused. The results of the stability test indicated that the highest Hg2+ losses (up to 5.5 % of Hg2+ loss) occur when low amounts of Hg2+ (