Speciation of mercury in environmental samples
Ondřej Zvěřina
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno,
Czech Republic
Abstract
Although mercury is a naturally occurring element, human activities have increased the
amount of mercury cycling in the environment several times. When mercury is released into
the atmosphere, it is subjected to various physical, chemical, and photochemical processes
and interactions. It is well known that the properties of mercury are highly dependent on its
chemical form.
The aims of presented thesis are suggestion and application of analytical procedures for
speciation analysis of mercury. The selective and sequential extractions, thermal desorption
and gas chromatography techniques were used for mercury characterization in the
environmental samples from both the urban areas (particulate matter, street dust) and the
pristine nature (Antarctic soils and lichens).
The new insights into the speciation of mercury in the investigated materials and its
distribution in the environment were obtained.