A comparison between continuum- and line source AAS for speciation analysis of butyl- and phenyltin compounds

Abstract

The analytical potential of using instrumentation based on AAS for speciation analysis was investigated. Organic tin (OT) species were determined following gas chromatographic (GC) separation, atomization in a quartz tube (QT) and detection by line source AAS (LSAAS) and, for comparison, by state of the art continuum source AAS (CSAAS). For an unbiased comparison of the AAS instruments, their working conditions were individually optimized. For CSAAS, the linear range was limited by the GC column capacity (10–1600 ng g⁻¹) and for LSAAS this range was limited by stray radiation (20–1000 ng g⁻¹). With background correction, the instrumental LODs for OT were 6–22 pg as tin for CSAAS, while for LSAAS corresponding values were five to ten times poorer. Without background correction, the LOD of CSAAS was twice as good as that of LSAAS. For method validation, two certified reference materials, Harbour Sediment BCR-646 and Oyster Tissue BCR-710, were analysed.