Direct current inductively coupled plasma optical emission

Emission spectroscopic techniques such as inductively coupled plasma optical emission (ICP-OES) and direct current plasma optical emission (DCP-OES). include the analysis of copper in biological materials (Delves et al.. 1983. Roberts et al., 1985). These techniques, with suitable sample preparation, have sufficient low bias and precision for clinical work but are more expensive and more complex than AAS (Herber et al.. 1982). Flow injection-ICP-OES will be mentioned below. 

As shown in Table 28-1, several methods are used to atomize samples for atomic spectroscopic studies. Inductively coupled plasmas, flames, and electrothermal atomizers are the most widely used atomization methods we consider these three methods as well as direct current plasmas in this chapter. Flames and electrothermal atomizers are widely used in atomic absorption spectrometry, while the inductively coupled plasma is employed in optical emission and in atomic mass spectrometry. 

Inductively coupled plasmas (ICPs) are by far the most common type of plasma sources used in today s commercial ICP optical emission (ICP-OES) and ICP mass spectrometric instrumentation. However, it was not always that way. In the early days, when researchers were attempting to find the ideal plasma source to use for spectrometric studies, it was not clear which approach would prove to be the most successful. In addition to ICPs, some of the other novel plasma sources developed were direct current plasmas (DCPs) and microwave-induced plasmas (MIPs). Before I go on to describe the ICP, let us first take a closer look at these other two excitation sources. 

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