Interpretation of the interaction between cesium ion and some clay minerals based on their structural features.

Cesium (Cs+) is known to have a strong interaction with various clay minerals; however, it is not interpreted from the structure of clay minerals and the adsorption isotherm. The adsorption interactions between Cs+ and hydrobiotite (H-Bio), biotite (Bio), vermiculite (Verm), and exfoliated vermiculite (E-Verm) were evaluated by analyzing adsorption isotherm, basal spacing, and adsorption/desorption experiments. The Cs+ adsorption of H-Bio and Verm fitted well to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, while the Cs+ adsorption of Bio and E-Verm fitted well to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The basal spacing of H-Bio and Verm was approximately 1.4 nm, while Bio and E-Verm basal spacing was 1.0 nm. The adsorption experiment results for Cs+ under the coexistence of Ca2+ and K+ indicated that the contribution of the interlayer sites to Cs+ adsorption on H-Bio and Verm was 25-40%, while the contribution of the interlayer sites to that on Bio and E-Verm was almost 0%. The adsorption isotherms reflected this interlayer contribution to Cs+ adsorption, which was dependent on the basal spacing. Therefore, the basal spacing of clay minerals is one of the key structural properties controlling both the adsorption capacity and the adsorption mechanism of Cs+ in clay minerals.

Determination of total mercury in biological samples using flow injection CVAAS following tissue solubilization in formic acid.

Total mercury in biological samples was determined by flow injection (FI) cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (CVAAS) following tissue solubilization with formic acid. A mixture of potassium bromide and potassium bromate was used to decompose organomercury compounds prior to their reduction with sodium borohydride. A gold amalgam system was used to achieve lower detection limits when required. National Research Council Canada certified reference materials dogfish liver (DOLT-3), dogfish flesh (DORM-2) and lobster hepatopancreas (TORT-2), as well as oyster tissue (NIST SRM 1566b) and mussel tissue (NIST SRM 2976) were used to assess the accuracy of the method. The method of standard additions provided the most accurate results. Limit of detection (LOD) for Hg in the solid sample of 0.001 and 0.01mugg(-1) were achieved with and without amalgamation, respectively. The precision of measurement for 1.6ngml(-1) methylmercury was 2.7% using the amalgam system.

Formic acid solubilization of marine biological tissues for multi-element determination by ETAAS and ICP-AES.

A simple, fast method is described for the determination of Ag, As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Se in marine biological tissues by electrothermal atomic-absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) and Na, Ca, K, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Mn by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Solubilization of the biological tissue was achieved by using formic acid with vortex mixing followed by heating to 50 degrees C in an ultrasonic bath. Once solubilized, the tissues were diluted to an appropriate volume with water for analysis. Aliquots were sampled into a graphite furnace and ICP-AES using a conventional autosampler. The method was validated by use of biological certified reference materials from NRC, DORM-2, DOLT-2, DOLT-3, LUTS-1, TORT-2, and NIST SRMs 1566b and 2976. Simplicity and reduced sample-preparation time prove to be the major advantages to the technique.