sample pretreatment (such as sample digestion) was
optimized for a variety of environmental samples,
including contaminated soil and plant samples. The
efficiency was evaluated using practical parameters,
such as time required for analysis, sample amount,
mercury species, accuracy, and precision/reproducibility,
as well as using statistical analysis. Our results
demonstrate that these three instrumental methods
yielded similar mercury concentration values and statistical
data, while the mercury direct analyzer had the
advantages of not requiring for sample digestion and
only requiring a small quantity of samples for distribution
of mercury in a single root, a single root hair,
and sub-regions of a single leaf of plants. These factors
are used to justify use of the portable direct
mercury analyzer under field conditions and validation
of the results.