From 12. 11. – 18. 11. 2018 coworkers of JSI, the Department of Environmental Sciences visited the Dutch Metrology Institute (VSL) in Delft, Netherlands, to perform the inter-comparison measurements of VSL’s new mercury calibration system.
VSL has developed a mercury calibration system and we tested its performance using classical analytical method (pyrolysis coupled to atomic absorbance spectrometry with Zeeman background correction). Mercury from VSL’s calibration system was pre-concentrated onto different traps (iodinated activated carbon traps and gold traps) prior to the determination by atomic absorbance spectrometry. We prepared iodinated activated carbon traps from two types of iodinated activated carbon: one commercially available iodinated activated carbon, while the other type was prepared using the in-house procedure. Two types of gold traps were also tested: commercially available silica-coated gold traps and in-house prepared alumina-coated gold traps.
We have determined traps’ breakthrough and mercury recovery for a wide range of mercury concentrations. We determined the breakthrough of mercury on traps to estimate which types of traps are best for collecting mercury generated by VSL’s calibration system. We determined mercury recovery data to estimate the accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of their mercury calibration unit.

Loading of gold traps with VSLs Hg(0) calibration system.

Loading of iodated carbon traps with VSLs Hg(0) calibration system.

Measurement of iodated carbon and gold traps loaded by VSLs Hg(0) calibration system.