DMA-80 Direct Mercury Analyzer

Heidelberg Materials operates a cement production facility where the lab team are responsible for high-quality standards and compliance with environmental guidelines. However, the labs existing methods were time consuming and unreliable, and needed something that can streamline operations while ensuring regulatory compliance. In this application note, Milestone demonstrates how Heidelberg Materials was able to adopt the DMA-80 direct mercury analyser, which follows EPA 7473 method, offers low maintenance costs, and was easily integrated into daily lab operations.

Sample preparation is a cornerstone of laboratory operations, directly impacting productivity, data quality, regulatory compliance, safety and overall operational costs. However, it is also one of the most labor-intensive and challenging aspects of environmental testing, requiring precise workflows to handle a wide range of sample types, regulatory limitations and analytical requirements. Explore solutions from Milestone for optimizing sample preparation for both heavy metals and organic pollutant analysis to achieve efficient, safe and compliant results in environmental laboratories.

The increased interest from faculty and students in performing environmental analyses on soils and peat motivated the Department of Chemistry at Vassar College to look for a new analytical technique for mercury determination. Although it had an ICP-MS instrument for metals analysis, a dedicated mercury analysis solution was needed to achieve the department's research goals and throughput needs.

Explore how the DMA-80 evo Direct Mercury Analyzer from Milestone has allowed students to perform mercury analysis in diverse matrices, including fish and canned products. It has also enabled collaboration between research groups in the Department of Chemistry to support environmental research on soils.

Mercury is a heavy metal that causes serious health problems in exposed subjects, and analysis of mercury can be challenging. Numerous analytical methods are available for total mercury analysis, such as cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy (CV-AAS), cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (CV-AFS), and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Analytical laboratories are looking for solutions to analyze mercury avoiding the common ICP-MS challenges related to this element.

Milestone showcases the reliability and ease of use of thermal decomposition amalgamation atomic absorption spectrometry (DMA-80). Learn more about how the DMA-80 evo Direct Mercury Analyzer can benefit your research and streamline workflows.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has developed a method for detecting trace amounts of mercury in cosmetics which involves the direct analysis of cosmetic samples without the need for sample preparation. It allows the direct quantification of the total amount of mercury in both solid and liquid cosmetic samples. This has led to the introduction of ISO 23674, which focuses on direct mercury analysis techniques. In this application note, discover the Milestone DMA-80 evo, a mercury analyzer of solid, liquid and gas samples. Analysis takes five minutes and no sample preparation is required. The DMA-80 evo provides direct temperature control of the sample, and temperature is monitored at a rate of 20 times per second and a PID control adjusts the temperature according to set parameters resulting in control of exothermic reactions.

Aquagro® is a Chilean-based company specialized in exporting high-quality seafood products from the South Pacific to the rest of the world. Aquagro’s testing lab was experiencing difficulties with handling large number of samples and rush deliveries that needed to be processed every day to ensure quality and compliance with European legal requirements and regulations. In this application note, Milestone explains how Aquagro were able to set new standards for its mercury testing capabilities with the Milestone DMA-80 evo direct mercury analyzer due to the system’s reliability and its capability to handle heavy workloads.

Many laboratories are currently using traditional techniques like CV-AAS/AFS to determine the mercury content for various matrices such as soils, sediments, fish. Determination of total mercury content using these techniques or ICP-MS requires labor-intensive and time-consuming sample preparation steps, daily calibration, and could suffer from interferences and memory effects. In this application note, direct mercury analysis techniques are compared for saving costs.

This video by Milestone introduces the Milestone DMA-80 evo, a direct mercury analyzer of solid, liquid, and gas samples.

Innovative sample preparation technologies to enhance the sustainability of your laboratory

Mercury concentrations in marine sediments have been used to trace past volcanic activity