Reporting of variations in the natural isotopic composition of mercury

Anal Bioanal Chem. 2007 May;388(2):353-9. doi: 10.1007/s00216-007-1236-9. Epub 2007 Mar 21.

Abstract

High-precision measurements of natural variations in the stable isotopic composition of mercury show great promise as a new tracer of mercury sources and chemical transformations in the environment. We strongly suggest that all laboratories adopt a common means of data correction, standardization, and nomenclature in order to ensure that data from various laboratories can be easily evaluated and compared. We make suggestions for mass bias correction, reporting of mass-dependent and mass-independent isotope variations, and a standard protocol for reporting analytical uncertainties. We also present our measured values for isotope ratios in several mercury standard solutions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Mercury / chemistry*
  • Mercury / standards
  • Mercury Isotopes / analysis
  • Mercury Isotopes / standards
  • Reference Standards
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Research Design / standards*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods
  • Terminology as Topic*

Substances

  • Mercury Isotopes
  • Mercury