Study on the Solid Phase Extraction of Hg(II)-SBDTR Chelate with C18 Disks and Its Application to the Determination of Mercury in Tobacco and Tobacco Additive

A sensitive, selective and rapid method has been developed for the determination of mercury based on the rapid reaction of mercury(II) with p-sulfobenzylidenethiorhodanine (SBDTR) and the solid phase extraction of the colored chelate with $C_{18}$ disks. In the presence of pH 3.5 sodium acetate-acetic acid buffer solution and Emulsifier-OP medium, SBDTR reacts with mercury(II) to form a red chelate of a molar ratio 1 : 2 (mercury to SBDTR). This chelate was prconcentrated by solid phase extraction with $C_{18}$ disks. An enrichment factor of 50 was achieved. The molar absorptivity of the chelate is $1.28{\times}10^5 L{\cdot}mol^{-1}{\cdot}cm^{-1}$ at 545 nm in measured solution. Beer's law is obeyed in the range of 0.01-3 ${\mu}$g/mL. The relative standard deviation for eleven replicates sample of 0.01 ${\mu}$g/mL is 1.65%. This method was applied to the determination of mercury in tobacco and tobacco additive with good results.