This device allows real-time measurement of elemental Hg concentrations in the air (response time = 1 sec) using atomic absorption spectrophotometry with high-frequency modulated light polarisation and Zeeman correction (ZAAS-HFM), which is necessary to eliminate possible interference from impurities such as water vapour. The instrument can be used to measure Hg concentrations both outdoors and indoors between 2 and 200,000 ng/m3 and complies with the requirements of EN 15852:2010.
The combined use of the analyser and a specific pyrolysator (PYRO-915+) also allows the Hg content of environmental matrices to be determined using the thermal desorption technique with a lod of 0.5 μg/kg Hg (for rocks and sediments). In addition, thanks to the possibility of gradually heating the sample, it is possible to perform speciation by discriminating between the different Hg compounds present in the sample based on their specific metal release temperatures.
The purchase of these two analytical instruments was partially funded by the Beneficentia Stiftung Foundation.
