Atomic Emission and Inductively Coupled Plasma Techniques

2 Atomic Emission and Inductively Coupled Plasma Techniques 

Atomic absorption remains a staple of forensic chemistry, given its low cost, simple operation, and easy maintenance. The limitations are related to versatility. Unless multielement lamps are used, only one element can be tested for at a time, and each element requires a separate lamp and instrument optimization. For small target lists such as a list of barium, antimony, and lead for GSR, this is not onerous, but still is inconvenient. Limits of detection are in the low-ppm to high-ppb range for most elements, As a result, a few forensic laboratories have turned to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) for additional elemental analysis capability. 

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