Visible light photochemical vapor generation using metal-free g-C3N4/CQDs composites as catalyst: Selective and ultrasensitive detection of mercury by ICP-MS

Photochemical vapor generation (PCVG) is a green and effective sampling technology for analytical atomic spectrometry , and in recent years it has been received continuous attention. In this work, visible light photochemical vapor generation was achieved with metal-free g-C 3 N 4 /CQDs (carbon nitride/carbon quantum dots) composites as a photocatalyst, and used for selective and ultrasensitive detection of total mercury by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The limit of detection can be as low as 8   ng   L −   1 , making it one of the most sensitive methods for mercury determination . The visible light photochemical vapor generation can also be coupled to other analytical atomic spectrometric techniques.