Thermal spectral background

Figure 14 Improvement in the Raman spectrum of peat humic acid in neutralized form by use of near-infrared excitation. The top spectrum was obtained with 514.5-nm excitation, which results in a large fluorescence background that obscures the signal. However, as shown in the bottom spectrum, with 1064-nm excitation, and after subtraction of thermal emission background, spectral features of peat humic are clearly discernible. (Reprinted with permission from YH Yang, HA Chase. Applications of Raman and surface enhanced Raman scattering techniques to humic substances. Spectr Lett 31 821-848, 1998. Copyright 1998 Marcel Dekker, Inc.)...

MS can measure the ratio between molar fractions of mass isotopomers. The ratio between two mass isotopomer pools of masses nti and m2 is defined in the present work as intensity ratio Jmi/m2- K identical with a mass spectral intensity ratio. If more than two mass isotopomer pools are assessed, their relative ratios, normalized to the sum, are named mass isotopomer distribution. The mass distribution of a compound can be thus obtained from the analysis of ions, which contain the intact carbon skeleton of the analyte. In the area of me-tabohc flux analysis, mass distributions of various metaboHtes have been assessed by MS. The major method used is GC/MS, whereby the analytes are deriva-tized into forms with desired physico-chemical properties such as increased volatihty, thermal stabiHty and suitable MS properties [62]. The mass of the formed derivate must be sufficiently high (usually above 175 apparent mass units) to avoid background interference [48]. To obtain the mass distribution of a compound, ions with the entire carbon skeleton of the analyte have to be present. For accurate quantification of the mass distribution of such ions, they should occur in high abundance and preferably be unique species, thus being formed by only one fragmentation pathway. 

Because Dcr is proportional to the content of Ag nanocrystals and Ai/2 is in inverse proportion to their mean size d [77, 78], one may conclude that the state and amount of Ag nanocrystals were not affected by the cryopolymerization. Sharp growth of DCI at heating of obtained metal-polymer films specifies that the main part of Ag at 77 K is in a form of small noncrystalline Ag clusters, which aggregate with formation of nanocrystals under action of thermal relaxation processes in polymer matrix. According to data in work [79], in UV vis spectra of PPX films on a background of the PPX absorption only absorption bands of Ag with n> 15 could be observed in open range of PPX spectrum at X >320 nm. Because in this spectral range... 

A multipole cell at pressures around 1 to 15 mtorr, placed between the sampler-skimmer interface and the mass spectrometer, can serve two functions reduce the kinetic energy of the ions to nearly thermal energies (<0.5 eV) and carry out reactions with analyte or background ions. Of particular interest for ICP-MS are reactions that would dramatically reduce spectral overlaps due to elemental or polyatomic ions. Two potentially undesirable processes must be considered for successful use of a collision-reaction cell. Scattering losses can be severe if the mass of the collision or reaction gas is high compared to that of the analyte ion... 

Flame AFS combines features of both AAS and FES. The excitation of atoms is by the absorption of light. When individual element spectral line sources are used, the spectral selectivity should be as high as that in AAS, although scatter may be more of a problem in AFS. Quantification is by comparison of the intensity of fluorescence emitted by samples with that emitted by standards of known concentration. At low determinant concentrations, it is necessary to discriminate between small fluorescence emission signals and the background light levels associated with thermally excited emission from the flame. Therefore in AFS, as in FES, it is desirable to have low flame background emission. This is discussed further in Chapter 2, where instrumental aspects of flame spectrometric techniques are discussed. 

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