TY - JOUR A1 - Faßbender, Sebastian A1 - von der Au, Marcus A1 - Koenig, Maren A1 - Pelzer, J. A1 - Piechotta, Christian A1 - Vogl, Jochen A1 - Meermann, Björn T1 - Species-specific isotope dilution analysis of monomethylmercury in sediment using GC/ICP-ToF-MS and comparison with ICP-Q-MS and ICP-SF-MS JF - Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry N2 - A recently introduced inductively coupled plasma-time-of-flight-mass spectrometer (ICP-ToF-MS) shows enhanced sensitivity compared to previous developments and superior isotope ratio precision compared to other ToF and commonly used single-collector ICP-MS instruments. Following this fact, an improvement for isotope dilution ICP-MS using the new instrumentation has been reported. This study aimed at investigating whether this improvement also meets the requirements of species-specific isotope dilution using GC/ICP-MS, where short transient signals are recorded. The results of the analysis of monomethylmercury (MMHg) of a sediment reference material show that isotope ratio precision of ICP-MS instruments equipped with quadrupole, sector-field, and time-of-flight mass analyzers is similar within a broad range of peak signal-to-noise ratio when analyzing one isotopic system. The procedural limit of quantification (LOQ) for MMHg, expressed as mass fraction of Hg being present as MMHg, w(Hg)MMHg, was similar as well for all investigated instruments and ranged between 0.003 and 0.016 μg/kg. Due to the simultaneous detection capability, the ICP-ToF-MS might, however, be more favorable when several isotopic systems are analyzed within one measurement. In a case study, the GC/ICP-ToF-MS coupling was applied for analysis of MMHg in sediments of Finow Canal, a historic German canal heavily polluted with mercury. Mass fractions between 0.180 and 41 μg/kg (w(Hg)MMHg) for MMHg, and 0.056 and 126 mg/kg (w(Hg)total) for total mercury were found in sediment samples taken from the canal upstream and downstream of a former chemical plant. KW - Methylmercury KW - Legacy pollution KW - Finow Canal KW - Isotope dilution KW - Mercury speciation PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-529967 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03497-z SN - 1618-2642 VL - 413 IS - 21 SP - 5279 EP - 5289 PB - Springer CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-52996 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -