Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
7th BLACK SEA BASIN CONFERENCEON ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, Varna, Bulgaristan, 10 - 15 Eylül 2015, ss.72
Fluorescent lamps raise important environmental concerns because of their high content of mercury, a known toxic metal. When the lamps are discarded, mercury may contaminate soil, plants, animals, and water. Fluorescent lamps s extensive use over the years
has caused growing concerns over their proper disposal. Therefore; the limit allowed by the European Community is 5 mg per compact fluorescent lamp. A fluorescent lamp is basically constituted of a glass tube internally coated with phosphorescent powders composed of calciumhalophosphate with 1 2% antimony and manganese [Ca5(F,Cl)(PO4)3:Sb, Mn] . The quantity of the minor components may change slightly, depending on the color of the lamp. An alumina pre-coating may be found between the glass tube and the luminescent powder. The tube is filled with an inert gas (argon, neon, krypton, and/or xenon) at low pressure (0.003 atm) and mercury vapor at low partial pressure. Cathodes made of either tungsten or stainless steel are assembled on the ends of the lamps. The tube is under partial vacuum. Fluorescent lamps rely on mercury as the source of ultraviolet radiation for the production of visible light. In this study different brands of spent and new fluorescent lamps were characterized for the distribution of mercury. Mercury was determined in the phosphor powders, which affects efficiency of lamp. As a technique; hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry was used, because of the following advantages of the technique for the determination of mercury: (i) element is seperated from the matrix simply and thus interferences are decreased; (ii) limit of detection is lowered to ppb (μg/L) levels.