Detection limits in Zeeman-effect electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A theoretical and experimental study was made of the effect of photometric measurement error on the detection limits in Zeeman-effect electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The results were used to develop a simple method for calculating the detection limits using four experimentally determined parameters, namely the baseline offset compensation time, the integration time, the light flux ‘energy’ and the background absorbance. A comparison was made of the calculated and measured detection limits for a number of elements in pure water solutions, and also in NaCl, blood and sea-water matrices. The calculated detection limits were found to be in agreement with the experimental data for all the elements studied. The performance of the method was demonstrated by optimizing the conditions for the determination of cadmium in blood.