Total Mercury Determination in Muscle and Liver Tissue Samples from Brazilian Amazon Fish Using Slurry Sampling

Abstract

This paper presents a slurry sampling method for total mercury determination by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) in tissue of fish from the Amazon. The tissue samples were lyophilized and macerated, and then the slurry samples were prepared by putting 20 mg of tissue, added to a solution containing Triton X-100, Suprapur HNO3, and zirconium nitrate directly in sampling vials of a spectrometer. Mercury standard solutions were prepared under the same conditions as the slurry samples. The slurry samples and the mercury standard solutions were sonicated for 20 s. Twenty microliters of slurry samples were injected into the graphite tube, which contained an internal wall lined with tungsten carbide. Under these conditions, it was possible to thermally stabilize the mercury up to an atomization temperature of 1700 °C. The method was validated by mercury determination in reference materials DORM-4 and DOLT-4. The LOD and LOQ were 0.014 and 0.045 mg kg−1, respectively, and recovery percentages in relation to the concentration values were certified in the order of 98%.