Evaluation of Greenness of Methods for the Determination of Mercury in Mushrooms

Title:Evaluation of Greenness of Methods for the Determination of Mercury in Mushrooms

Volume: 1 Issue: 3

Author(s): Manuela Ruiz-de-Cenzano, Maria L. Cervera and Miguel de la Guardia

Affiliation:

Keywords: Analytical eco-scale, cold vapour, direct analysis, green analytical chemistry, mercury, microwave-assisted digestion, mushroom, thermal degradation.

Abstract: In the present study, two analytical methodologies, one based on direct thermal degradation of samples followed by atomic absorption analysis (TDA-AAS), and another one, which consists on acid microwave-assisted digestion (MAD) followed by cold vapour atomic fluorescence determination (CV-AFS), have been applied to determine mercury in mushrooms. Both methodologies found the same concentration values, from 258 to 570 ng g^-1 (dry weight), for nine samples. Analysis based on thermal degradation provided a limit of detection of 3 ng g^-1 similar to that found by CV-AFS, and a relative standard deviation of 3 %, three times higher than that of CV-AFS. However, the direct analysis of untreated samples agrees well with green analytical principles because it involves less reagents consume and reduces waste generation. In fact, at analytical Eco-Scale, TDA-AAS procedure involves a green score of 92 points in front of the 59 points obtained for CV-AFS method.

Cite this article as:

Ruiz-de-Cenzano Manuela, Cervera L. Maria and Guardia de la Miguel, Evaluation of Greenness of Methods for the Determination of Mercury in Mushrooms, Current Green Chemistry 2014; 1 (3) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2213346101666140319233119