Long-term sampling system for the measurement of ambient air concentrations of mercury at a contaminated site

Iodized activated carbon was used as sampling medium for mercury species in ambient air. It showed satisfactory recovery in laboratory adsorption experiments with spiked air. Also, field measurements parallel to a gold trap system were conducted. After optimizing the volume flow, the results of an intermittently sampling gold collector and the continuously sampling iodized activated carbon trap agreed well. Iodized activated carbon is therefore a low cost alternative for the determination of ambient air levels of mercury. Because of the higher loading capacity of the iodized activated carbon compared with gold, it is especially suited for long-term sampling and mean-level assessment.