Tshering Zangmo and Atitaya Siripinyanond*

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were used as a chemical modifier in graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry to prevent loss of mercury during pyrolysis.  With SeNPs, the sensitivity improvement of 15 fold was obtained.  Then, SeNPs were also prepared in situ on the paper and used as sorbent paper for capturing mercury vapor.  With mercury on the sorbent paper, the color was changed from orange color of SeNPs to gray color due to the formation of HgSe.  The gray color was more intense with increasing Hg concentrations. Therefore, the SeNPs sorbent paper could be used with the color analysis software as a semi-quantitative technique for mercury analysis.

Thanks are due to Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) for the scholarship given to TZ. The research grant (BRG 6180006) from the Thailand Research Fund and Mahidol University is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to Center of Excellence in Chemistry, Postgraduate Education and Research Program in Chemistry (PERCH-CIC) for the support. We also appreciate DTect Tech Co., Ltd., Thailand for providing the commercial mercury field test kit used in this study.  This work is related to the SDGs 4 (Quality Education) and 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).

ReferenceZangmo, T., Siripinyanond, A. Exploring the applicability of nano-selenium for capture of mercury vapor: Paper based sorbent and a chemical modifier in graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (2019) Analytica Chimica Acta, 1085, pp. 29-38. DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2019.08.021