DIRECT AA MERCURY DETERMINATION IN OIL AND OIL PRODUCTS
Determination of mercury in oil and petroleum hydrocarbons is currently a vital problem due to the fact that the regulations for the mercury content in emissions from thermal power plants are becoming ever more stringent, and mercury poisons catalysts used in oil refining. Complex organic matrix of oil and low mercury content (average concentration does not exceed 30 μg/kg, the highest concentration being 20,000 μg/kg) make oil one of the most difficult objects for quantitative analysis for mercury.
Practically all the AA and AF methods of mercury determination in oil involve the stage of the oil decomposition with acids, which increases the detection limit and time of analysis, and gives rise to errors.
