Thesis (MSc (Chemistry and Polymer Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / There are various mercury species in the environment and their toxicity and availability relies on
their chemical form and oxidation states. Inorganic and organic mercury is found to co-exist in
water and body tissue of some organisms. Among them inorganic mercury has a lower toxicity
than the organic mercury. Methyl mercury (CH3Hg+) is the most toxic species found in the
environment because it can enter the food chain accumulating and contaminating humans.
Hence the total mercury concentration does not reflect the important information and thus the
needs for the development of methods for the simultaneously separating and determination of
mercury species. A study of the electrochemistry of mercury and organo mercury complexes
with cysteine and dithizone indicated the formation of stable complexes, which can be utilized
for the determination of the species in environmental matrices.
Cyclic voltammetry is used to determine the electrochemical properties of the complexes. A
technique based on capillary electrophoresis and amperometric detection (CE-AD) has been
developed for the speciation of mercury. This technique has the capability to detect mercury
species that are electrochemically active. Using capillary electrophoresis in combination with
electrochemical detection makes speciation of the complexes possible at lower than normal
concentrations. For CE-AD the detection limits were 0.005 μg/L for Hg2+ and 0.4 μg/L for
MeHg+. These detection sensitivities are attractive for environmental monitoring.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1742 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Martin, Lynwill Garth |
| Contributors | Crouch, A. M., Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Science. Dept. of Chemistry and Polymer Science. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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