Atomic Absorption Spectrometry AAS

AAS has been the standard tool employed by analysts for the determination of trace levels of metals since shortly after its inception in 1955. A fine spray of the analyte is passed into a suitable flame, usually oxygen-acetylene or nitrous oxide-acetylene, which converts the elements to an atomic vapour. Through this vapour is passed 

This technique can determine a particular element with little interference from other elements, but has two major limitations (i) it does not have the highest sensitivity and (ii) only one element at a time can be determined. This has reduced the extent to which it can be used. 

Increasingly, due to their superior sensitivity, AAS instruments can implement graphite furnace techniques. 

The AAS method is based on the fact that atoms in their ground state can absorb light of a particular energy (i.e. frequency). This process is the 

Light is emitted at the source of radiation and absorbed by atoms in the atomizer system at exactly defined wavelengths and within strictly limited spectral ranges (half width of hollow cathode discharge lamps acting as source of light, approximately 0.002 nm), whereby each spectrum line is 

Over a wide range, AAS obeys Beer s law, which describes a linear relationship between extinction and the concentration of the element in question. The concentration required is determined by multiplying the measured extinction by a calibration factor or by reading off with the aid of the calibration curve. 

As indicated above, this method is extremely popular because of its low cost and ease and rapidity of use. The simplest form of AAS is the flame technique which is of rather limited sensitivity. This may often prove suitable for analysis of lead in air and soils, but is insufficiently sensitive to analyse natural waters or most vegetation samples without a prior preconcentration. For these latter samples, or for short-term air samples flameless atomic absorption is required. Flame techniques are relatively free of interference and matrix effects, but in many applications the method of standard additions [1, 2] is necessary to minimize matrix interferences. Flameless AAS is more subject to interference by background absorption and matrix effects than the flame method, and the use of both deuterium background correction and the standard additions method is usually advisable. 

Source Temperature /K Rotational, T , Excitation, Electron, T Ion, T, State 

Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) is nowadays one of the most important instrumental techniques for quantitative analysis of metals (and some few metalloids) in various types of samples and matrices. The history of atomic absorption spectrometry dates back to the discovery of dark lines in the continuous emission spectrum of the sun by WoUaston in 1802. The lines are caused by the absorption of the elements in the atmosphere of the sun. His work was taken up and further pursued by Fraunhofer in 1814. In 1860, Kirchhoff and Bunsen demonstrated that the yellow hne emitted by sodium salts when introduced into a flame is identical with the so-caUed D-Hne in the emission spectrum of the sun. However, it took nearly one century before this important discovery was transferred into a viable analytical technique. In 1955, Alan Walsh published the first paper on atomic absorption spectroscopy [4]. At the same time, and independently of Walsh, AUce-made and Wilatz pubhshed the results of their fundamental AAS experiments [5, 6]. But it was the vision of Walsh and his indefatigable efforts that eventually led to the general acceptance and commercialisation of AAS instrumentation in the mid-1960s. Further instrumental achievements, such as the introduction of the graphite furnace and the hydride generation technique, in the second half of the 1960s further promoted the popularity and applicability of the technique. 

The instrumental requirements of atomic absorption spectrometry will be discussed in the following section. In Fig. 12.3, the essential components of an atomic absorption spectrometer are depicted schematically a suitable radiation source, an 

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Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) stalled its cai eer 50 years ago. During this time fundamentals of the method have been mostly discovered thus transforming AAS to very powerful but relatively simple method of analytical chemistry. Nowadays it is one of the most widespread methods in analytical labs. 

The complex of the following destmctive and nondestmctive analytical methods was used for studying the composition of sponges inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Techniques of sample preparation were developed for each method and their metrological characteristics were defined. Relative standard deviations for all the elements did not exceed 0.25 within detection limit. The accuracy of techniques elaborated was checked with the method of additions and control methods of analysis. 

Direct atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) analysis of increasing (e 0,10 g) mass of solid samples is the great practical interest since in a number of cases it allows to eliminate a long-time and labor consuming pretreatment dissolution procedure of materials and preconcentration of elements to be determined. Nevertheless at prevalent analytical practice iS iO based materials direct AAS are not practically used. 

Note that the interfacing of LC techniques with MS puts significant constraints on the solvents that can be used i.e., they must be volatile, with a low salt concentration, for MS compatibility. Narrow-bore columns, which use much smaller amounts of salt and organic modifier, appear to have potential for facilitating IEC-MS applications.40 Despite the excellent sensitivity of MS detection for most elements, however, there are cases where matrix effects can interfere. In this situation, combination of IEC with atomic emission spectrometry (AES) or atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) may be preferable, and can also provide better precision.21 32 4142 Other types of... 

Non-volatile elemental and inorganic selenium, biologically formed in bacterial or plant samples, can be determined via atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS)... 

Other methods reported for the determination of beryllium include UV-visible spectrophotometry [80,81,83], gas chromatography (GC) [82], flame atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) [84-88] and graphite furnace (GF) AAS [89-96]. The ligand acetylacetone (acac) reacts with beryllium to form a beryllium-acac complex, and has been extensively used as an extracting reagent of beryllium. Indeed, the solvent extraction of beryllium as the acety-lacetonate complex in the presence of EDTA has been used as a pretreatment method prior to atomic absorption spectrometry [85-87]. Less than 1 p,g of beryllium can be separated from milligram levels of iron, aluminium, chromium, zinc, copper, manganese, silver, selenium, and uranium by this method. See also Sect. 5.74.9. 

Atomic techniques such as atomic absorption spectrometry (AA), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), have been widely used in the pharmaceutical industry for metal analysis.190-192 A content uniformity analysis of a calcium salt API tablet formulation by ICP-AES exhibited significantly improved efficiency and fast analysis time (1 min per sample) compared to an HPLC method.193... 

Total dissolved Fe and Mn were analyzed directly by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). As was measured by AAS with hydride generation (HG-FIAS). Total dissolved Se concentrations were determined by hydride-generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (Chen etal., 2005). 

The mathematical model may not closely fit the data. For example. Figure 1 shows calibration data for the determination of iron in water by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). At low concentrations the curve is first- order, at high concentrations it is approximately second- order. Neither model adequately fits the whole range. Figure 2 shows the effects of blindly fitting inappropriate mathematical models to such data. In this case, a manually plotted curve would be better than either a first- or second-order model. 

The measurement of very low levels of environmental pollutants is becoming increasingly important. The determination of lead, a cumulative toxin, is a good example. The current maximum allowable concentration of lead in British drinking water, before it enters the distribution network, is SO ng ml [29]. Although electrothermal atomization atomic-absorption spectrometry (AAS) can be used to measure this and lower concentrations, it is slow and requires considerable effort to ensure accurate results. Flames can provide simple and effective atom sources, but, if samples are aspirated directly, do not provide sufficient sensitivity. Thus, if a flame is to be used as the atom source, a preconcentration step is required. 

A convenient method is the spectrometric determination of Li in aqueous solution by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), using an acetylene flame—the most common technique for this analyte. The instrument has an emission lamp containing Li, and one of the spectral lines of the emission spectrum is chosen, according to the concentration of the sample, as shown in Table 2. The solution is fed by a nebuhzer into the flame and the absorption caused by the Li atoms in the sample is recorded and converted to a concentration aided by a calibration standard. Possible interference can be expected from alkali metal atoms, for example, airborne trace impurities, that ionize in the flame. These effects are canceled by adding 2000 mg of K per hter of sample matrix. The method covers a wide range of concentrations, from trace analysis at about 20 xg L to brines at about 32 g L as summarized in Table 2. Organic samples have to be mineralized and the inorganic residue dissolved in water. The AAS method for determination of Li in biomedical applications has been reviewed . 

Nickel is normally present at very low levels in biological samples. To determine trace nickel levels in these samples accurately, sensitive and selective methods are required. Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), with or without preconcentration or separation steps, are the most common methods. These methods have been adopted in standard procedures by EPA, NIOSH, lARC, and the International Union of Pure and Applied... 

Atomic absorption spectrometry (AA). This is a standard laboratory analytical tool for metals. The metal is extracted into a solution and then vaporized in a flame. A light beam with a wavelength absorbed by the metal of interest passes through the vaporized sample for example, to measure zinc, a zinc resonance lamp can be used so that the emission and absorbing wavelengths are perfectly matched. The absorption of the light by the sample is measured and Beer s law is applied to quantify the amount present. 

A hand-auger drill was used to obtain samples at 30 cm depth intervals down to 5.0 m. At these depths the fly ash is unsaturated in both sites. Porewater samples were extracted from the fly ash samples by centrifugation, following the method of Edmunds Bath (1976) and analysed by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), and ion chromatography. Because the porewaters were obtained by centrifuge extraction, the... 

Stimulated absorption of photons. In this case, the electronic transition takes place from state 1 to state 2 in response to the action of an external radiation of the appropriate frequency. Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) is based on this process. On the other hand, atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AES) corresponds to the sequential combination of a stimulated absorption followed by spontaneous emission. 

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