Abstract

An atomic-absorption method was developed for determining subnanogram amounts of mercury in 100 mg of samples and for studying the release of mercury at elevated temperatures. The rock samples were contained in a sidearm of a quartz cell, and the mercury released by heating was determined by measuring the absorption of 2537-Å light passed through the cell. For a number of terrestrial and nonterrestrial samples analyzed, the results obtained agreed within a factor of 2 with neutron activation methods. This agreement is considered satisfactory since samples are not homogeneous. For a lunar sample that contained 1.79 ppb of mercury, the precision expressed as standard error is ±0.05 ppb. The sensitivity of this method for 1% light absorption is 0.03 ng; the limit of detectability is of the order of 0.01 ng. Mercury-release patterns obtained by atomic absorption methods also were in reasonable agreement with mercury-release patterns obtained by neutron-activation methods.

Determination of Hg²⁰² and Other Mercury Isotopes in Samples of Mercury Vapor by Mercury Resonance Radiation Absorbiometry*

K. R. Osborn and H. E. Gunning
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(7) 552-555 (1955)

A Modified King Furnace for Absorption Spectroscopy of Small Samples

F. S. Tomkins and B. Ercoli
Appl. Opt. 6(8) 1299-1303 (1967)

Apparatus for the Determination of the Band Absorption of Gases at Elevated Pressures and Temperatures

J. T. Bevans, R. V. Dunkle, D. K. Edwards, J. T. Gier, L. L. Levenson, and A. K. Oppenheim
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50(2) 130-136 (1960)

Mercury Atomic Beam Lamp*

R. L. Barger and K. W. Meissner
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 48(1) 22-27 (1958)

Determination of absorption coefficients of thick semiconductor samples using photoacoustic spectroscopy

J. Fesquet, B. Girault, and M. D. M. Razafindrandriatsimaniry
Appl. Opt. 23(16) 2784-2787 (1984)