Abstract

The degree of ionization for Mg and Cd vaporized into a parallel plate capacitively coupled plasma (PP-CCP) has been studied. Using electrothermal vaporization and a CCP operating at 200 W, the degree of ionization is 83% and 48% for Mg and Cd, respectively. An increase in applied power increases the degree of ionization. Changes in plasma gas flow rate, up to 1.0 l min⁻¹, also change the degree of ionization slightly, probably due to mass transport effects and slight changes in the discharge conditions. Additions of EIE (Na as NaNO₃) up to 10 times (w/w) the analyte increase the degree of ionization slightly.