We demonstrate a novel way to introduce a so-called Hg reference gas, produced by a gas generator, into an elemental detector, such as ICP-MS, and to directly measure gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM as HgCl₂) at a wide range of concentrations, covering 4 orders of magnitude. The approach was tested using two types of generators based on the dilution of a gas saturated with mercury chloride vapours (from dry HgCl₂ salt) and on the evaporation of aqueous HgCl₂ standards. The former generator provided reference gas at μg m⁻³ concentrations, while the latter was applicable from low ng m⁻³ to μg m⁻³. The generation and measurement of gaseous Hg was achieved in real time without significant memory effects, and with a response time shorter than 5 min. This unique approach of direct measurement (without thermal conversion) of both gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) and GOM from environmentally relevant to industrial concentrations has been shown to offer the potential to significantly improve the reliability of Hg determination from gas generators. This, in the longer term, will be invaluable to improve accuracy of in-field Hg measurements.

我们展示了一种新颖的方法，可以将由气体发生器产生的所谓的Hg参比气体引入元素检测器（如ICP-MS），并直接测量宽范围的气态氧化汞（GOM为HgCl ₂）。浓度，涵盖4个数量级。使用两种类型的发生器对该方法进行了测试，这些发生器基于用氯化汞蒸气饱和的气体（来自干燥的HgCl ₂盐）的稀释和基于HgCl ₂水溶液的蒸发。前一种发生器提供的参考气体浓度为μgm ^-3，而后者适用于从低ng m ^-3到μgm ^-3的浓度。。气态Hg的产生和测量是实时完成的，没有明显的记忆效应，并且响应时间短于5分钟。已证明这种独特的直接测量（不进行热转化）的方法是从环境上与工业浓度相关的环境中对气态元素汞（GEM）和GOM进行测量，可显着提高气体发生器测定Hg的可靠性。从长远来看，这对于提高现场汞测量的准确性将是无价的。