Spark emission spectroscopy

Flame and spark emission spectroscopy Not very accurate. Gives multielement analyses 10 = to 10 M... 

Jones and Isaac 16 ) compared atomic absorption spectroscopy and spark emission spectroscopy for the determination of several elements in plant tissue. By comparing results statistically using a t-test, no significant differences were found for calcium, manganese, iron, copper, zinc, and aluminium, but significant differences were found for potassium and magnesium at the 0.01 % level. Breck162) made a similar comparison study for 15 elements. 

Direct spark emission spectroscopy, 15 348 Direct spectrometry ozone analysis, 17 812 Direct spotting, in microarray fabrication, 16 386... 

A technique that utilizes a solid sample for light emission is spark emission spectroscopy. In this technique, a high voltage is used to excite a solid sample held in an electrode cup in such a way that when a spark is created with a nearby electrode, atomization, excitation, and emission occur and the emitted light is measured. Detection of what lines are emitted allows for qualitative analysis of the solid material. Detection of the intensity of the lines allows for quantitative analysis. 

Previous experience in arc and spark emission spectroscopy has revealed numerous spectral overlap problems. Wavelength tables exist that tabulate spectral emission lines and relative intensities for the purpose of facilitating wavelength selection. Although the spectral interference information available from arc and spark spectroscopy is extremely useful, the information is not sufficient to avoid all ICP spectral interferences. ICP spectra differ from arc and spark emission spectra because the line intensities are not directly comparable. As of yet, there is no atlas of ICP emission line intensity data, that would facilitate line selection based upon element concentrations, intensity ratios and spectral band pass. This is indeed unfortunate because the ICP instrumentation is now capable of precise and easily duplicated intensity measurements. 

The major disadvantage of arc/spark emission spectroscopy is the instability of the excitation source. This problem can be virtually eliminated by the use of a plasma torch. The most common commercially available method uses an inductively coupled plasma (ICP), which is also called RF plasma, to excite the sample (13-19). The resulting spectrometers (Fig. 4) can simultaneously measure up to 60 elements with high sensitivity and an extraordinarily wide linear dynamic range. 

Classical methods for analysis of manganese have been the periodate method in air, and the permanganate method in water (Saric 1986). Nowadays, among the solid-state analytical methods available, neutron activation analysis (NAA) is the most reliable to determine manganese in biological and environmental materials. This method of choice combines both high specificity, sensitivity and reproducibility for very low concentrations of manganese, whereas X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy showed standardization problems and arc/ spark emission spectroscopy suffered from electrode contamination (Chiswell and Johnson 1994). 

In arc- and spark-emission spectroscopy, one of the critical aspects of quantitative analysis is the need to match the standard as closely as possible to the sample. Dilution of sample and standards by a common matrix in DC-arc methods somewhat reduces the dependence upon exact matches. Gordon and Chapman devised a common matrix-dilution technique for DC-arc analysis which is almost totally independent of the forms of the sample and the standard [4]. 

Arc and spark emission spectroscopy is widely used for the qualitative, semiquanti-tative, and quantitative determination of elements in geological samples, metals, alloys, ceramics, glasses, and other solid samples. Quantitative analysis of more than 70 elements... 

The relative accuracy and precision obtained by arc and spark emission spectroscopy is commonly about 5%, but may be as poor as 20-30%. Arc emission is much more prone to matrix effects than spark emission due to the lower temperature of the discharge. Both arc and spark excitation may require matrix matching of sample and standards for accurate analyses, and usually require the use of an internal standard. 

Production and quality control of uranium fuel rods used in nuclear power plants are monitored by DC arc emission spectroscopy. Trace elements in high-purity metal powders are measured for quality control purposes. Tungsten powder used to make light bulb hlament can be analyzed for trace elements by arc/spark emission spectroscopy without the need to dissolve the tungsten this eliminates the use of expensive and hazardous hydrofluoric acid. 

Multielement flame emission spectroscopy is a relatively new development, although multielement methods have been used in arc-spark emission spectroscopy for some years. Several multielement methods are available, including scanning, direct reading techniques similar to those employed in arc-spark emission spectroscopy and the more recently developed vidicon detector tubes. Vidicon detectors are described in Chapter 3. 

This textbook is an outgrowth of the author s experience in teaching a course, primarily to graduate students in chemistry, that included the subject matter presented in this book. The increasing use and importance of atomic spectroscopy as an analytical tool are quite evident to anyone involved in elemental analysis. A number of books are available that may be considered treatises in the various fields that use atomic spectra for analytical purposes. These include areas such as arc-spark emission spectroscopy, flame emission spectroscopy, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Other books are available that can be catalogued as methods books. Most of these books serve well the purpose for which they were written but are not well adapted to serve as basic textbooks in their fields. 

Arc and spark emission spectroscopy is widely used for the qualitative, semiquantitative, and quantitative determination of elements in geological samples, metals, alloys, ceramics, glasses, and other solid samples. Quantitative analysis of more than 70 elements at concentration levels as low as 10-100 ppb can be achieved with no sample dissolution. The determination of critical nonmetal elements in metal alloys, such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, can be performed simultaneously with the metal elements in the alloys. 

Applications of Arc and Spark Emission Spectroscopy 7.2.3.1 Qualitative Analysis... 

Of the solid state analysis methods, namely, neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), and arc/spark emission spectroscopy, only NAA has found wide application for manganese analysis of biological samples. Although Birks et al. [102] claim high sensitivity for XRF analysis of manganese in freeze-dried samples, there are problems of standardization of the technique at low manganese concentrations, while solid emission spectroscopy suffers markedly from electrode contamination. On the other hand, NAA has both a high specificity and sensitivity... 

The principal emission spectroscopic techniques in use today are flame photometry, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy and spark emission spectroscopy. The first commercial flame photometers appeared in 1948. The... 

There are several analytical techniques available for determination of minerals in nuts. For example there is atomic absorption. X-ray fluorescence, flame emission and arc/spark emission spectroscopy, spectrophotometry and specific ion electrodes. With inductively coupled plasma spectrometery (ICPS), it is possible to determine P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Na, Al, Zn, Mn, Fe, Co, Mo and B in plant materials. ICPS has the potential to determine all the nutritional elements (except nitrogen) with a polychromator sequentially scanning monochromator in the single digestion (Zarcinas et al. 1987). 

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