Determination of mercury traces by differential-pulse stripping voltammetry after sorption of mercury vapour on a gold-plated electrode

Trace mercury is reduced with tin(II) to mercury metal, which is volatilised by bubbling air through the solution. A certain fraction of this mercury is sorbed on a rotating gold disk electrode and stripped in a thiocyanate solution. The detection limit is about 30 ng Hg(II) in solution; the relative standard deviation is 6% for 100 ng Hg(II) ( n = 7). The detection limit for mercury in air is 1.7 ng l −1 with a preconcentration time of 10 min.