A novel method for the determination of mercury and selenium in shark tissue using high-resolution inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

A method for measuring Hg and Se in shark tissue by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) has been developed. Using a matrix of 4% (v/v) aqueous methanol, the spray chamber and transfer tubing memory effects of Hg were significantly reduced. The methanol matrix was able to effectively wash out Hg (10 ppb) and return the signal to blank level in approximately 5 min. This enabled accurate and concomitant measurements of Hg and Se with detection limits (3σ blank signal, n=10) of 26 and 4 ppt, respectively. The recoveries of Hg and Se based on the CRM were 88 and 83%, respectively. The concentrations of Hg and Se in the (liver, muscle, kidney) of a hammerhead shark (dry weight) were (2.65±0.85, 7.09±1.32, 4.43±1.36) and (17.3±4.1, 1.28±0.29, 24.1±5.2) mg kg−1 (where the expanded uncertainty uses a k=2 value) respectively. Multi-elemental semi-quantitative analysis of a hammerhead shark liver, muscle and kidney revealed high levels of Cd, Zn and As.