Title: mercury flow system
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - mercury flow system
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.M03834
Status: current

Definition
For mercury released directly as atomic vapour, different direct transfer systems are used. In an open dynamic system the liberated analyte is transported by a carrier gas through the sampling or excitation source and swept away. In an open static system the equilibrated gaseous phase is forced into the absorption cell by displacement, e.g. by water. During measurement the gaseous phase is thus static. In a closed system the analyte and carrier gas are circulated through the absorption cell and the generator vessel until equilibrium between the liquid and gaseous phases is established.

Related Term
- carrier gas: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C00863

Source
- PAC, 1992, 64, 261. 'Nomenclature, symbols, units and their usage in spectrochemical analysis - XIII. Terms related to chemical vapour generation (IUPAC Recommendations 1992)' on page 263 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199264020261)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/M03834/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/M03834/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/M03834/xml

Citation: Citation: 'mercury flow system' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.M03834
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-07T06:23:02+00:00