Mechanism of surfactant effect in flame and plasma atomic spectrometry

Abstract

A new model which attempts to explain the effects of surfactant on flame atomic absorption spectrometry is proposed. If the hydrophilic ends of the surfactant molecules are opposite in charge to the determinations, surfactant molecules accumulate to form a reverse micelle during the nebulisation process, protecting the determinand from interference by foreign ions and improving the atomisation efficiency by reduction of the decomposition products of the micelle in the flame.