You're probably looking at an older ion trap; they are readily available on eBay. For the organomercury compounds you really want to use gold, not silver. The organomercuries can be chromatographed, but you will not pick up elemental mercury with this system, so you would need to modify the system to inclue some form of a jumper in order to use it concurrently as a mercury detector.

You will need stunningly good analytical and instrumental skills to pull this off. This is not an off-the-shelf, read-the-method amateur analyst project.

Mark,

Thank you for your answer. Silver works quite well for my application. I am not all that interested in organomercury compounds. Over the past 20 years and many thousands of analyses, I have learned that other mercury compounds are likely being collected, perhaps chlorine, nitrogen and sulfur compounds. Maybe thallium. My supposition that there are different mercury compounds is based on the differing temperatures at which the compounds are released from the silver collector. Yeah, there are organic mercury compounds released at low temperatures but they occur in predictable areas over hydrothermal systems. My main interest is the other compounds which seem to have really interesting zonation based on empirical observation.

I do not think my concept is all that easy to do properly. However, it has it has been done before. (see the work of Howard McCarthy, USGS) Unfortunately the company that made that mass spec is no longer in the business and Howard recently died so I am short on mentors. I have been reading for several months now and wanted to talk to others. Since I am not in a university environment my opportunities for interaction are limited, hence my question. I have not used a mass spec in many years but I think it is the best way to go.

But I am really interested in a vehicle mounted device, for a wide array of gases, not strictly Hg.

Thanks again for your response. I appreciate your input. Science without discussion can be something of an intellectual wasteland.

Hi, have you considered using a remore gold trap and a small DC calibrated vacuum pump? This would collect all forms of Hg so your measurement would be for TGM. The arrangement would be very easy to transport and operate in remote locations. You would need to bring the trap back to the lab and thermally desorb the Hg and determine by AAS or AFS. Good luck, Warren

Warren,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for the delayed response.

Yes, I am aware of this approach and have been doing something very similar but using an Ag passive sampler and a dedicated Hg analyzer. Those data have shown that I need to have more detail on the acquired Hg compounds, not just TGM that ostensibly I get from the Hg analyzer.

Your publications look very interesting and helpful. Perhaps some speciation information could be obtained via AFS.

Thanks so much for your kind suggestion, leading me to your publications

Patty