Bruker issues new article on advances in ICP-MS selectivity for mercury analysis in water

Phil Black - PII Editor 17/10/2013

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Bruker Chemical and Applied Markets (CAM), Fremont, California, US: A new article detailing the use of the Bruker aurora M90 ICP-MS for the determination of mercury in environmental waters is now available online.

Authored in collaboration between Bruker and the Laboratory of Environment and Food of Vendee, France, the article presents experimental data illustrating how the advances in ICP-MS detection offered by the aurora M90 allows sensitive and selective low level mercury detection in a range of environmental water samples. Entitled ‘Schleichender Tod durch flüssiges Silber?’ and published in the August 2013 edition of Labor Praxis the full article can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/BCA565.

In light of mercury’s high toxicity, the EU Water Framework Directives sets maximum allowable concentration within environmental waters at trace contaminate levels of 0.050 µg/L for fresh water and 0.5 µg/L for waste water. ICP-MS offers the high sensitivity, low detection limits and multi element capabilities required for low concentration metal analysis within environmental samples but has traditionally lacked the selectivity for trace mercury quantification. The aurora M90 ICP-MS from Bruker offers significant operational advantages to overcome these issues, including a 90o ion mirror to significantly reduce destructive background signals as well as a novel collision reaction interface to intercept, remove and reduce polymeric interferences.

“Today ICP-MS is considered the gold standard for trace element analysis”, commented Bruker Director of ICP-MS Global Market Development and Product Management Meike Hamester. “The advanced features offered by the aurora M90 allows operators to overcome the traditional issues associated with ICP-MS and provides the powerful and highly selective analysis required for trace mercury quantitation”.