Modular hollow-cathode lamp excited flame atomic fluorescence spectrometry system

Abstract

A modular atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) system with boosted discharge, hollow-cathode lamps (HCLs) for excitation and argon-separated air-acetylene and air-hydrogen flames has been applied to the determination of Cd, Cu, Fe and Ni in several standard reference materials (SRMs). The detection limits of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni and Pb are comparable to those obtained with the Baird HCL inductively coupled plasma-AFS (ICP-AFS) system. The values obtained for several SRMs are in close agreement with the certified values. The modular HCL flame AFS method is simple, rapid and accurate and does not require matrix-matching for the samples examined.