The determination of sulfide in seawater by flow-analysis with voltammetric detection

Preliminary measurements of sulfide in seawater using cathodic stripping voltammetry and a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) in batch-mode showed that the sulfide peak decreased rapidly with time. This decrease was not caused by O2, H2O2 or IO3−, and the sulfide peak was not stabilised by trace metal additions. A home-made flow-cell was constructed to enable the determination of sulfide in seawater using voltammetry with an HMDE. A stable sulfide peak was obtained by flow-analysis with voltammetric detection, with a precision of 2.8% and detection limit of 0.5 nM at a 60 s adsorption time. Several thiol compounds were found to produce a peak at, or very close to, the peak potential for sulfide. Their interference was evaluated by allowing the sulfide peak in conventional (batch) voltammetry to decay. Comparative experiments showed that waste metallic mercury is responsible for removal of sulfide in batch-mode analysis due to formation of insoluble mercuric sulfide salts causing the rapid decay of the sulfide peak. The problem is circumvented by using flow-analysis to determine sulfide.