Determination of mercury in alcohol vinegar samples from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

This paper proposes a direct method for the determination of mercury in vinegar using ultrasound extraction and cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (CV AAS). The optimization step was performed using chemometric techniques, a full factorial design and a Box-Behnken matrix, where the factors studied were sodium tetrahydroborate flow rate, isoamyl alcohol volume, thiourea concentration and sonication time.