Hi,
Does anyone know which type/brand of valve is usable in case of gas flow containing elemental mercury?
Extra information: Our lab is working on a project related to mercury adsorption and valve body leakage is not allowed because of safety and data reliability.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Thi Phuong Thao Nguyen , I do not have experience with mercury but with other poisons .. I think generally any gas should not leak. Maybe, you can ask provider of brands: Parker, Burkert, Swagelok or Superlok from South Korea. ..
Thank you so much for your recommendation, Mr. Fiala. I will definitely check those brands out.
Hi Thi Phuong Thao Nguyen ,
I echo what Roman Fiala says and I swear by Swagelok brand valves. For trace mercury analyses, you will want to purchase their Teflon/PTFE made 1/4 turn valves. These are equipped to fit 1/4 inch lines and you can also purchase PTFE lines as well.
The nice thing about this material is you can acid wash and autoclave it without worrying about trace metal adsoprtion which is key for elemental mercury analyses.
You can also get connectors that are more affordable without the ball valve for sealing in almost any size, although full warning it may take a while to ship. I advise ordering replacement parts in advance, particularly for the ring fittings and cones that are inside the valves that create the seal. Another good way to avoid leakage is to cut your lines every time you start a new experiment to make sure you are not pinching them and creating a tight seal. We also used PTFE tape (plumber's tape from local hardware stores) as an additional precaution and it worked surprisingly well.
I encourage you to look at the schematics included in the supplementary information of my papers where we show the setup we employed to look at microbially-generated trace levels of Hg0:
Article A physiological role for HgII during phototrophic growth
Article Heliobacteria Reveal Fermentation As a Key Pathway for Mercu...
I'd also be happy to put you in touch with Noémie Lavoie if you would like to see some pictures of the equipment close up.
Best of luck and please let me know if you have any other questions,
Daniel Gregoire
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