Atomic Spectrometry Update—Environmental Analysis

Abstract

This review covers published papers and major conference presentations available to the authors for the year ending in the summer of 1988. It will be of interest to those using, or planning to use, analytical atomic spectrometry for the analysis of environmental samples. The full references on which it is based may be found in JAAS, Volume 3 (1988). As is often the case in the world of “real” samples, sample preparation procedures are again a dominant feature of the review. Speciation continues to attract interest, especially in waters. Electrothermal atomisation with matrix modification, frequently using the platform-in-furnace technique, is gaining ever wider acceptance for routine analysis, as is ICP-MS. The latter is now being used with increasing frequency for isotope dilution analysis—the ultimate in internal standardisation for the atomic spectroscopist! Practitioners of slurry atomisation are becoming rather more abundant, especially in the soils and plants arena, to such an extent that slurry atomisation justifies a separate section this year.