Simple Acid Digestion Procedure for the Determination of Total Mercury in Plankton by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Article Article scientifique Article Simple Acid Digestion Procedure for the Determination of Total Mercury in Plankton by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy eng 2022-03-25 2022-03-25 author Santos João 0000-0002-1899-2226 916877 author Mehmeti Lirie 931065 author Slaveykova Vera 0000-0002-8361-2509 510054 29 10.3390/mps5020029 35448694 2409-9279 PMC9029141 https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9279/5/2/29 <p>Plankton, at the bottom of the food web, play a central role in the entry of mercury into the aquatic biota. To investigate their role in mercury uptake, reliable analytical procedures for Hg analysis are highly sought. Wet digestion procedures for determining total mercury in different biological matrices have been established since years, however only few studies focused on planktonic samples. In the present work, a simple and cost-effective wet digestion method was developed for the determination of total mercury in samples of small plankton material using a cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (CVAFS). The optimization of the digestion method was achieved by using glass vessels with Teflon caps, low amount of acids (3 mL w/w 65% HNO3 or 3 mL 50% v/v HNO3), a constant temperature of 85 °C, the presence and absence of pre-ultrasound treatment, and a continuous digestion period (12 h). Certified reference materials IAEA-450 (unicellular alga Scenedesmus obliquus) and BRC-414 (plankton matrix) were used to optimize and validate the digestion method. The recovery efficiency of the proposed method for IAEA-450 and BCR-414 (3.1 mg and 21.5 mg) ranged between 94.1 ± 7.6% and 97.2 ± 4.6%. The method displayed a good recovery efficiency and precision for plankton matrices of low size. Thus, allowing better digestion of planktonic samples for mercury analysis using CVAFS techniques.</p> BCR-414 CVAFS IAEA-450 Microalgae Plankton Total mercury Wet acid digestion Zooplankton Dewey 550 Dewey 333.7-333.9 Swiss National Science Foundation Elucidating the role of PHYToplankton in Aquatic Mercury (Hg) Biotic and Abiotic transformations (PHYTAMBA) 200021E_175721 CH Project funding 41 Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau 153 18 Institut des sciences de l'environnement 0DB false 752 Environmental Biogeochemistry and Ecotoxicology Methods and protocols 5 2 e508c80b-03f4-4859-9f38-0cec8daa3a19 Article (Published version) Public Article-scientifique-from-unpaywall.pdf 986644 application/pdf CC BY openAccess Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement

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Simple Acid Digestion Procedure for the Determination of Total Mercury in Plankton by Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy	Methods and protocols			2022	254	126

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