Recently developed technologies for speciation analysis of mercury in environmental samples

The toxicity,environmental chemical behavior and bioavailability of mercury are not only dependent on its concentration but also controlled by its chemical form.Organomercury compounds are generally more toxic than inorganic mercury species,espe-cially MeHg+ being the most hazardous one,mercury speciation is therefore of great importance.Different techniques for the extrac-tion and pre-concentration of mercury species from various matrix in the past decade are reviewed,including acid/base solvent ex-traction,microwave assisted extraction,solid phase extraction,solid phase microextraction,single drop microextraction and disper-sive liquid-liquid microextraction.The recently developed methods for mercury species separation and determination based on the combination of chromatography or capillary electrophoresis with spectrometric or mass spectrometric detectors are also discussed.Finally,it is pointed that future efforts should be focused on developing efficient and simple pretreatment techniques,and establish-ing hyphenated approaches for mercury species separation and detection with high resolution,high sensitivity and high speed.