Analytical Atomic Spectrometry with Flames and Plasmas

Spectrochemical analysis is a powerful instrumental principle for the determination of the chemical elements and their species in a variety of sample types of different size, at widely di€erent concentration levels and with very di€ering cost performance ratios and time consumption. In addition, not only monoelement but also multielement determinations are possible with widely di€ering precision and accuracy using the various di€erent methods.
The basic principles of spectrochemical analysis are related to the atomic and molecular structure and also to gas discharge physics as well as to instrumentation and measurement sciences. Therefore, research into spectrochemical analysis requires knowledge of the aforementioned disciplines to enable innovative developments of new methodologies to be achieved in terms of the improvement of power of detection, accuracy and cost performance ratios, these being the driving forces in analytical innovation. The development of analytical procedures also requires the analytical chemist to have a knowledge of the theory and the principles of the above mentioned disciplines. It is the aim of this monograph to bring together the theory and principles of todays spectrochemical methods that make use of ¯ames and plasma sources. This should enable researchers to enter the ®eld of spectrochemical research, where innovation is through the use and development of new sources and the application of new types of spectrometers, and also to face challenges from emerging ®elds of application, which is as straightforward today as it was even in the time of Bunsen and Kirchho€. This work should appeal both to chemists and physicists, the cooperation of whom is instrumental for progress to be made in this ®eld of analytical chemistry as well as to users from di€erent areas of science, including the life sciences, material sciences, environmental sciences, geochemistry, chemical process technology, etc. This present work could also be viewed as a resume of the theoretical background, which manufacturers of instrumentation for atomic absorption spectrometry, arc, spark and glow discharge emission spectrometry as well as ICP emission spectrometry and plasma mass spectrometry with ICPs or glow discharges and laser based techniques can recommend to their interested users to make the most ecient use of these analytical methods in their respective ®elds of application. Also research associates entering the ®eld of atomic spectroscopy with ¯ames and plasmas should ®nd the necessary basics and references to further literature in this book.