Continuous substoichiometric determination of traces of mercury by radioactive isotope-dilution analysis.

The possibility of automating substoichiometric analysis by isotope dilution has been proposed previously. Automation where the analysis is based on solvent extraction has now been carried out experimentally. Preliminary experiments are described by means of which optimum conditions for this type of automated determination can be chosen and its reproducibility and selectivity checked. As an example traces of mercury down to 5 x 10(-6) g are determined and the method is applied to the analysis of low-grade cinnabar ores.