Cold vapor-solid phase microextraction using amalgamation in different Pd-based substrates combined with direct thermal desorption in a modified absorption cell for the determination of Hg by atomic absorption spectrometry

In this work, different Pd-based substrates (i.e. Pd wire, Pd-coated stainless steel wire and Pd-coated SiO2) are tried for microextraction of Hg prior to its release into a modified quartz T-cell so as to develop a cost-effective, sensitive and easy-to-handle coupling between solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and atomic absorption spectrometry. The new design allows a direct sample injection from the SPME device into a quartz T-cell thus avoiding analyte dilution. Mercury amalgamation onto a Pd wire provided the best performance in respect to sensitivity and fiber lifetime, but Pd wires could not be implemented in the SPME device due to their poor mechanical characteristics. On the contrary, Pd-coated SiO2 fibers could be easily adapted to the typical sampling device used for SPME. Narrow time-dependent absorption signal profiles that could be integrated within 25 s were obtained. The detection limit was 90 pg mL−1 of Hg, and the repeatability expressed as relative standard deviation was 4.3%.