Applications, potentialities and limitations of adsorptive stripping analysis on mercury film electrodes

This article reviews the field of adsorptive stripping analysis (AdSA) on mercury film electrodes (MFEs). Mercury thin films deposited on conductive substrates can be used as electrodes in the reductive mode of AdSA since they retain most of the favourable features of the hanging mercury drop electrode while offering the advantages of solid electrodes at the same time. The practical aspects of the application of MFEs in AdSA are discussed and some applications in the field of inorganic and organic trace analysis are presented.