Atomic emission spectrometry spark

Inductively coupled argon plasma (icp) and direct current argon plasma (dcp) atomic emission spectrometry are solution techniques that have been appHed to copper-beryUium, nickel—beryUium, and aluminum—beryUium aUoys, beryUium compounds, and process solutions. The internal reference method, essential in spark source emission spectrometry, is also useful in minimizing drift in plasma emission spectrometry (17). Electrothermal (graphite... 

Applications Atomic emission spectrometry has been used for polymer/additive analysis in various forms, such as flame emission spectrometry (Section 8.3.2.1), spark source spectrometry (Section 8.3.2.2), GD-AES (Section 8.3.2.3), ICP-AES (Section 8.3.2.4), MIP-AES (Section 8.3.2.6) and LIBS. Only ICP-AES applications are significant. In hyphenated form, the use of element-specific detectors in GC-AED (Section 4.2) and PyGC-AED deserves mentioning. 

Spark sources are especially important for metal analysis. To date, medium-voltage sparks (0.5-1 kV) often at high frequencies (1 kHz and more), are used under an argon atmosphere. Spark analyses can be performed in less than 30 s. For accurate analyses, extensive sets of calibration samples must be used, and mathematical procedures may be helpful so as to perform corrections for matrix interferences. In arc and spark emission spectrometry, the spectral lines used are situated in the UV (180-380nm), VIS (380-550nm) and VUV (<180 nm) regions. Atomic emission spectrometry with spark excitation is a standard method for production and product control in the metal industry. 

SS-AES Sliding spark-source atomic emission spectrometry... 

Heavy Metals, Isotope Dilution, Spark Source Mass Spectrometry, and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry... 

During the many years that atomic emission spectrometry has been employed for chemical analysis a variety of types of excitation sources have been used. In earlier times electric discharges, dc-arcs and ac-sparks, found considerable favour. The inherent instability of the discharges has meant that as more stable alternatives have been developed they have been progressively replaced by them. Where electrical excitation is still employed it is achieved by an electrically controlled spark with far greater stability and much improved precision for the analysis. 

Atomic emission spectrometry (AES) is also called optical emission spectrometry (OES). It is the oldest atomic spectrometric multielement method which originally involved the use of flame, electric arc or spark excitation. Recently there has been considerable innovation in new sources plasma sources and discharges under reduced pressure. Littlejohn et al. (1991) have reviewed recent advances in the field of atomic emission spectrometry, including fundamental processes and instrumentation. 

Whatever the analytical method and the determinand may be, the greatest care should be devoted to the proper selection and use of internal standards, careful preparation of blanks and adequate calibration to avoid serious mistakes. Today the Antarctic investigator has access to a multitude of analytical techniques, the scope, detection power and robustness of which were simply unthinkable only two decades ago. For chemical elements they encompass Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) [with Flame (F) and Electrothermal Atomization (ETA) and Hydride or Cold Vapor (HG or CV) generation]. Atomic Emission Spectrometry (AES) [with Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP), Spark (S), Flame (F) and Glow Discharge/Hollow Cathode (HC/GD) emission sources], Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (AFS) [with HC/GD, Electrodeless Discharge (ED) and Laser Excitation (LE) sources and with the possibility of resorting to the important Isotope... 

Sources for atomic spectrometry include flames, arcs, sparks, low-pressure discharges, lasers as well as dc, high-frequency and microwave plasma discharges at reduced and atmospheric pressure (Fig. 5) [28], They can be characterized as listed in Table 2. Flames are in thermal equilibrium. Their temperatures, however, at the highest are 2800 K. As this is far below the norm temperature of most elemental lines, flames only have limited importance for atomic emission spectrometry, but they are excellent atom reservoirs for atomic absorption and atomic fluorescence spectrometry as well as for laser enhanced ionization work. Arcs and sparks are... 

Knowledge of the atomic spectra is also very important so as to be able to select interference-free analysis lines for a given element in a well-defined matrix at a certain concentration level. To do this, wavelength atlases or spectral cards for the different sources can be used, as they have been published for arcs and sparks, glow discharges and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (see earlier). In the case of ICP-OES, for example, an atlas with spectral scans around a large number of prominent analytical lines [329] is available, as well as tables with normalized intensities and critical concentrations for atomic emission spectrometers with different spectral bandwidths for a large number of these measured ICP line intensities, and also for intensities calculated from arc and spark tables [334]. The problem of the selection of interference-free lines in any case is much more complex than in AAS or AFS work. 

Equipment for atomic emission spectrometry is now available from various manufacturers. Several types of sources [arc, spark, ICP, MIP, glow discharge (GD), etc.] are offered as indicated for the respective firms, of which most are listed below. 

Glow discharges [584], known from their use as radiation sources for atomic emission spectrometry have also became recognized as powerful ion sources for mass spectrometry. This development started with spark source mass spectrometry, where continuous efforts were made to arrive at more stable sources with the added advantage that the matrix dependency of the analyte signals would be lower than in spark sources [69]. 

Lemarchand A., Labarraque G., Masson P. and Broekaert J. A. C. (1987) Analysis of ferrous alloys by spark ablation coupled to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry, J Anal At Spectrom 2 481-484. 

Emission spectrometry using chemical flames (flame atomic emission spectrometry, FAES) as excitation sources is the earlier counterpart to flame atomic absorption spectrometry. In this context emission techniques involving arc/spark and direct or inductively coupled plasma for excitation are omitted and treated separately. Other terms used for this technique include optical emission, flame emission, flame photometry, atomic emission, and this technique could encompass molecular emission, graphite furnace atomic emission and molecular emission cavity analysis (MEGA). 

Arc/Spark Atomic Emission Spectrometry (Optical Atomic Spectrometry)... 

This chapter deals with optical atomic, emission spectrometry (AES). Generally, the atomizers listed in Table 8-1 not only convert the component of samples to atoms or elementary ions but, in the process, excite a fraction of these species to higher electronic stales.. 4, the excited species rapidly relax back to lower states, ultraviolet and visible line spectra arise that are useful for qualitative ant quantitative elemental analysis. Plasma sources have become, the most important and most widely used sources for AES. These devices, including the popular inductively coupled plasma source, are discussedfirst in this chapter. Then, emission spectroscopy based on electric arc and electric spark atomization and excitation is described. Historically, arc and spark sources were quite important in emission spectrometry, and they still have important applications for the determination of some metallic elements. Finally several miscellaneous atomic emission source.s, including jlanies, glow discharges, and lasers are presented. 

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