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, quantitative determination of mercury in various environments is one of the most important environmental monitoring problems. The use of a mercury analyzer RA-915M (Light-915) with Zeeman background correction provides direct real-time continuous determination of mercury in air within the overall possible range of mercury concentration in ambient air. MEASUREMENT 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 (Light-915) 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. MEASUREMENT RANGE The measurement ranges of the mass concentration of mercury in air are: 0.5–20,000 ng/m3 (RA-915M, multipath cell); 500–200,000 ng/m3 (RA-915M, single-path cell); 0.1–3000 µg/m3 (Light-915). Technical capabilities of the analyzer multipath cell provide the following detection limits to be obtained: 1 ng/m3 (at time response 1 sec); 0.5 ng/m3 (at time response 10 sec) in accordance with EN 15852:2010 standard). ANALYSIS FEATURES Low limit of detection, wide range of measurement. High selectivity. Real-time measurement. Stable calibration. Direct mercury determination without its preliminary pre-concentration on a sorbent. Capability to perform field analysis and survey on a moving vehicle (automobile, helicopter, river or sea vessel). Data logger for results of 122-hour measuring in the "Monitoring" mode. Low maintenance, low running cost. EQUIPMENT AND REAGENTS The following equipment and materials are used for analysis: Mercury analyzer RА-915М (Ligth-915); PC with Windows® ХР/Vista/7/8 and RAPID software. The information in this leaflet is supplemental. To get more specific information on this method, please contact the developer of this method LUMEX INSTRUMENTS Group. NORTH AMERICA Lumex Instruments Canada 0890278 B.C. Ltd. E-mail: info@lumexinstruments.com www.lumexinstruments.com EUROPE Lumex Analytics GmbH E-mail: info@lumexanalytics.de www.lumexanalytics.de RUSSIA Lumex-Marketing LLC E-mail: sales@lumex.ru www.lumexinstruments.com CHINA Beijing Lumex Analytical Equipment Co. Ltd. E-mail: lumex@lumex.com.cn www.lumexcn.com 汞在环境中广泛存在,即使在低浓度下对人体生物也有毒害作用。因此,在各类环境中汞的定量测定是最重要的环境监测问题之一。使用塞曼背景校正的汞分析仪RA-915M(Light-915)可直接实时连续测定,周围环境空气中汞浓度的含量范围。空气中汞浓度的测定方法是基于原子吸收、塞曼背景校正光谱法测定原子汞的方法,该方法基于RA-915M(Light-915)汞分析仪。该便携式分析仪放置在采样点,空气不断流入其分析池。测量结果显示在分析仪的显示,控制单元的屏幕上或连接的PC的显示器上。通过使空气通过汞的吸收过滤器定期检查空白信号。使用内置的测试单元进行自检。模式“Monitoring”可提供长期自动测量。