Rapid determination of mercury species in sewage sludge by high-performance liquid chromatography on-line coupled with cold-vapor atomic-fluorescence spectrometry after ultrasound-assisted extraction.

So far, no research has been focused on the determination of organomercuries in sewage sludge. Here, an ultrasonic extraction method for the rapid determination of methylmercury (MeHg) and ethylmercury (EtHg) in sewage sludge after ultrasound-assisted extraction is proposed. Using TMA (tetramethylammonium hydroxide) as the extractant with 3.0 g copper powder, ultrasonic extraction for 30 min at 70 °C demonstrated to be highly efficient, and was shown a satisfied extraction efficiency for MeHg and EtHg from sewage sludge samples. Determination of mercury species was carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography on-line coupled with cold-vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPLC-CV-AFS). The obtained results from quality control samples were excellent. The proposed method was also validated by the application to five real samples. The results showed that the developed methodology was practicable and highly reliable. Due to the high toxicity of organomercuries and huge amounts of sewage sludge discharged every year, people should pay particular attention to pollutions from sewage sludge.