When study the dissolved gases in the water, generally we will use HgCl2 to make sure that organisms will not consume this gases before analysis. I heard that ZnCl2 could be used instead. is there any one did this? is it effective?
zinc is a nutrient, it does not work as a preservative against microorganisms
Hi Liyang,
We tested it once, as an alternate for low salinity water. For N2O it was fine, for methane, we observed a slight change that might not be significant, but we did observed a change for CO2 as it likely affected the pH, like HgCl2 in low range of salinity. We prefer Lugol as an alternate of HgCl2 for low salinity samples. Apart from that, have you seen the paper from Gloël et al. 2015 who proposed to use benzalkonium chloride for short term preservation (http://www.ocean-sci.net/11/947/2015/) ?
be careful when preserving samples containing H2S. It form complex with ZcCl and it will not preserve samples. Depending on what you want to measure afterward ZnCl can also be problematic...
Yes ,but HgCl2 is good option,ZnCl2 is more stable than HgCl2,which works selectively but not in all case,agree with Bruno.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology