Issue 11, 2017

Advances in discharge-based microplasmas for the analysis of trace species by atomic spectrometry

Abstract

Microplasmas have become an actual topic of interest for research in atomic spectrometric systems. Their excellent characteristics including low power consumption and small size and weight make the use of microplasmas a promising technique for developing portable analytical instrumentations for the real-time and on-site measurement of trace species. In this review, the current status of discharge-based microplasmas is presented and discussed from the viewpoint of four typical applications in the field of atomic spectrometry, i.e., excitation source, atomizer, ionization source, and induced vapor generation. Microplasma excitation sources are not only highlighted for the direct detection of trace species by optical emission spectrometry (OES), but also focused on for a series of coupling techniques with gas chromatograph (GC), microelectrodialysis (μED), capillary electrophoresis (CE), chemical vapor generation (CVG), and electrothermal vaporization (ETV). Besides the atomization function, microplasma atomizers could serve as a preconcentration device to achieve the trapping and release of analytes in atomizers. Microplasma ionization sources are used to ablate compounds from sample surfaces for analyte detection and profile analysis. Microplasma-induced vapor generation provides a novel sample introduction approach with the feature of being a green analytical method. The future prospects of microplasma application in the field of atomic spectrometry are also described.

Graphical abstract: Advances in discharge-based microplasmas for the analysis of trace species by atomic spectrometry

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
15 Aug 2017
Accepted
18 Sep 2017
First published
18 Sep 2017

J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2017,32, 2118-2126

Advances in discharge-based microplasmas for the analysis of trace species by atomic spectrometry

S. Liu, Y. Yu and J. Wang, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2017, 32, 2118 DOI: 10.1039/C7JA00279C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements