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Grup de Recerca Química Analítica i Ambiental

Participation in the 14th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant

Dr. Clàudia Fontàs has participated in the 14th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP 2019) as principal author of an oral presentation, chairman of a session of oral presentations and coauthor of a poster. The ICMGP was held in Poland on 8-13 September 2019 in Cracow (Poland).

Clàudia Fontàs has participated in the 14th International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant (ICMGP 2019), held in Poland on 8-13 September 2019 in Cracow (Poland), with an oral presentation entitled “Innovative Analytical Methodologies Based on a Thiol-Containing Ionic Liquid to Facilitate Hg Detection in Natural Waters” (Fontàs, Claudia; Elías, Gemma; Díez, Sergi).

In this study, the authors point out that there is a need for simple and efficient techniques that facilitate mercury monitoring to obtain reliable and significant data concerning contamination in aquatic environments.

In this context, chemically functionalized membranes can play an important role, and polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) are one of the most promising functionalized membranes existing nowadays. PIMs consist of a polymer, which provides mechanical strength, the carrier, which is the responsible of the extraction process, and sometimes also a plasticizer can be used to provide elasticity. The stability, versatility and easy manufacturing show PIMs as a useful separation technique to be taken into account.

In this work, the authors have studied how PIMs can solve different analytical difficulties in the analysis and/or monitoring of mercury (Hg). For that, PIMs have been prepared fixing cellulose triacetate (CTA) as polymer and the ionic liquid trioctylmethylammonium thiosalicylate (TOMATS) as extractant. A PIM with a composition 50% CTA+50% TOMATS was shown to be an effective sorbent to extract Hg from different natural waters without any effect of water matrix. Moreover, Hg collected in PIMs was analysed by means of an Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer allowing the determination of Hg at low μg L-1 level. This methodology exhibited excellent repeatability and accuracy with a LOD of 0.2 μg L-1. Besides, taking into account the problems associated with preservation and storage of aqueous samples for ambient-level Hg, the authors also explored the use of this PIM as a suitable material to preserve the metal until the appropriate analysis is done. It was found that the concentration of Hg extracted in PIMs did not change over time (after 6 months). This finding can lead to the development of suitable sorbents that can be used to preserve sample information of natural waters with Hg1.

The authors have also used a special device to incorporate a PIM and to contain a small reservoir of a 10-3 M cysteine solution where Hg is released after membrane transport. From our studies, it has been seen that the addition of the plasticizer nitrophenyloctyl ether (NPOE) to the PIM, allowed the selective transport and preconcentration of Hg from several natural waters such as river and sea water without any previous treatment (pH adjustment or salinity control). This important result shows this new PIMs-based device as a promising tool to perform Hg monitoring.

On the other hand, within the Conference, Dr. Fontàs has also participated as chairman, together with Mike Tate, within the session “Advances in analytical methods for environmental speciation determination”, and as coauthor of the poster entitled “Effectiveness of DGT Technique with Open and Restricted Gels in Predicting Mercury Uptake by Plants” (Turull, Marta; Fontàs, Clàudia; Díez, Sergi).

 

Reference:

1 G. Elias, E. Marguí, S. Díez, C. Fontàs, Anal. Chem. 2018, 90, 4756−4763.

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