Determination of soluble bromine in an extra-high-pressure mercury discharge lamp by sodium hydroxide decomposition-suppressed ion chromatography.

We have established a simple method for assaying the quantity of soluble bromine in the discharge tubes of an extra-high-pressure mercury discharge lamp. Each discharge tube is destroyed in 5 ml of 10 mM sodium hydroxide, and the recovered sodium hydroxide solution is analyzed by suppressed-ion chromatography using gradient elution. We have clarified that this method can assay less than 1 µg of soluble bromine in a discharge tube.