Determination of traces of mercury using radioactive zinc dithizonate as a reagent

A radioreagent method for the analysis of tracers of mercury using radioactive zinc dithizonate as the reagent has been developed. The mercury concentration is fairly linear with respect to net activity of the released zinc. At least 0.2 μg of mercury can be determined by this technique. Several metals interfere in the analysis of mercury by the direct method if the concentration of the interferers is about 100 times that of mercury. Even in such cases the separation procedure will eliminate most of the interferences. It is believed that the present method is suitable for the analysis of mercury in air or water pollution samples where the interferences are expected to be in much lower concentrations than what have been used for the interference study. The method was tested by analyzing the NBS reference standard SRM1064 and the results were found to be in agreement with the value certified by NBS. (T.G.)