Evaluation of Measurement Uncertainty in Soil Mercury Analysis

Dongjin Choi

doi:10.7857/JSGE.2026.31.5.032

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2026 Vol.31, Issue 5 Preview Page Next Page

Research Paper

Evaluation of Measurement Uncertainty in Soil Mercury Analysis 토양 중 수은 분석시 측정불확도 평가

31 October 2026. pp. 32-42

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Abstract

Mercury is a substance with high residual toxicity that affects humans, animals, and plants and can enter the soil and cause contamination. In areas where mercury concentration exceeds soil contamination concern/countermeasure criteria, improvement projects such as pollutant removal, facility relocation are implemented, so analysis errors must be reduced and analysis must be performed accurately. Measurement uncertainty can be introduced to identify the cause of error, and in this study, the measurement uncertainty that occurs in the process of analyzing mercury in soil was evaluated. The considered uncertainty factors were the pretreatment of the sample, the dilution of the pretreatment solution, the standard solution for creating the calibration curve, the calibration curve, and the repeatability. The influence of each uncertainty on the measurement uncertainty was calculated. The standard material was spiked in a medium that did not contain mercury and was pretreated/analyzed, and the expanded uncertainty was 0.01 mg/kg and the final result was 0.48 ± 0.01 mg/kg. The process of preparing the standard solution for creating the calibration curve had the greatest impact on the uncertainty. To reduce the uncertainty associated with preparing standard solutions for calibration curves, an alternative approach could be to dispense the mass corresponding to the target volume rather than the volume itself during liquid aliquoting, thereby lowering the standard deviation.

Keywords

Mercury

Measurement Uncertainty

Soil

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Information

Publisher :The Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment
Publisher(Ko) :한국지하수토양환경학회
Journal Title :Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
Journal Title(Ko) :지하수토양환경
Volume : 31
No :5
Pages :32-42
Received Date : 2026-09-21
Revised Date : 2026-09-26
Accepted Date : 2026-10-01
DOI :https://doi.org/10.7857/JSGE.2026.31.5.032

Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment ISSN:1598-6438(Print) 2287-8831(Online) 지하수토양환경

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