Plasma sources Direct current plasmas

Microwave-induced plasma (MIP), direct-current plasma (DCP), and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) have also been successfully utilized. The abundance of emission lines offer the possibility of multielement detection. The high source temperature results in strong emissions and therefore low levels of detection. Atomic absorption (AA) and atomic fluorescence (AF) offer potentially greater selectivity because specific line sources are utilized. On the other hand, the resonance time in the flame is short, and the limit of detectability in atomic absorption is not as good as emission techniques. The linearity of the detector is narrower with atomic absorption than emission and fluorescence techniques. 

In a direct-current plasma source (DCP) initial heating of an inert gas, usually argon, is produced by a dc-arc. Experimentally it is arranged for the plasma to be established in a high-velocity gas stream. When the edges of the plasma are cooled with an inert gas vortex, the cooler outer parts have... 

For special applications direct current plasma (DCP) (Leis et al., 1989) and micro-wave-induced plasma (MIP) may be used. The MIP first became widely used as a spectroscopic radiation source after a stable discharge at atmospheric pressure had been obtained (Beenakker, 1977 Beenakker et al., 1978). The MIP is not capable of taking up wet aerosols, but is useful for the excitation of dry aerosols, produced by electrothermal evaporation from a graphite furnace (Aziz et a ., 1982). Direct sample insertion has been discussed recently by Blain and Savin (1992). 

Direct-current plasma jets were first described in the 1920s and have been systematically investigated as sources for emission spectroscopy. In the early 1970s, the first commercial direct current plasma (DCP) was introduced. The source was quite popular, particularly among soil scientists and geochemists for multielement analysis. 

Figure 5. Analytical working curve for potassium. The curve was obtained using a RCA 53612 CCD with a direct current plasma source.

The use of atomic emission spectrometry expanded markedly when the first commercial plasma atomic emission spectrometers came on the market in the middle of the seventies. The principle of the direct current plasma (DCP) source was reported in the twenties and the first DCP instrument was constructed at the end of the fifties. The first microwave plasma source was... 

The principle of the direct current plasma source (Gerdien and Lotz)... 

Direct current plasma (DCP). A spectroscopic source in which plasma is maintained by an electric field (a direct current arc between three electrodes). 

The atomic emission source provides for sample vaporization, dissociation, and excitation. The ideal excitation source will allow the excitation of all lines of interest for the elements in the sample, and do this reproducibly over enough time to encompass full elemental excitation. Excitation sources include but are not limited to (1) inductively coupled plasma (ICP), (2) direct current plasmas (DCP), (3) microwave induced plasmas (MIP), and (4) capacitively coupled... 

FIGURE 9 A direct current plasma emission source. 

Direct-current arcs into which no material is introduced have many appHcations as heat sources. Industrial processing of metals using plasma torches has been carried out in the former USSR (126). Thermal plasmas also are used in surface and heat treatment of materials (127,128). Metals can be... 

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... 

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