Use of Graphite Furnace Television in Electrothermal Atomization Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

✍ Scribed by G. Donati; M. Ottaviani; E. Veschetti

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 245 KB
• Volume: 54
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0026-265X
• DOI: 10.1006/mchj.1996.0104

✦ Synopsis

The determination of metals in traces by means of electrothermal atomization atomic absorption spectrometry (ETA-AAS) presents analytical difficulties for complex matrixes such as seawater or brines. Some of them can be overcome with sample pretreatment or through the use of matrix modifiers at the moment of the instrumental analysis. These operations require a preliminary study of the working conditions, the effect of which is evaluated through the trend of the background signal, the signal-to-noise ratio, and the recovery of analytes after a given pretreatment. The optimization of the first two aspects is generally achieved for attempts through monitoring of the signals produced by the photomultiplier in correspondence of the total and aspecific absorptions. To this purpose the use of a solid state CCD camera like an ancillary device was applied to the development of the thermal program. The television camera was temporarily lined with the furnace during the drying and ashing phases. Detailed images of the phenomena related to the phase transitions occurring in graphite furnace prior to atomization were thus obtained.