Direct determination of mercury content in ambient air

INTRODUCTION

Mercury, being widespread in environment, has toxic effect on a human organism even at a low concentration. Therefore, quantitativ e determination of mercury in vari ous environments is one of the most important environmental monitoring problems.

The use of a mercury analyzer RA-915M/RA-915+/RA- 915Light with Zeeman background correction provides di rect real-time continuous determination of mercury in air from 0.5 ng/m 3 within the overall possible range of me rcury concentration in ambient air.

MEASURING METHOD

The method of mercury concentration measuring in air is based on determination of atomic mercury by AAS with Zeeman background correction employed in each of the RA-915M/RA-915+/RA-915Light mercury analyzers. The portable analyzer is placed at a sampling point and the air continuously flows into its analytical cell. The measurement results are displayed on the screen of the display and control unit of the analyzer or the display of a connected PC. The blank signal is regularly checked by passing the air through an absorption filter. Serviceability check is performed using a built-in test cell. A special “Monitoring” mode provides long-term measurements automatically.