The Characterization of an Electrothermal Vaporization-Direct Current Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer for the Determination of Boron, Cadmium, Copper, Iron, and Lead

Abstract

A graphite rod electrothermal vaporizer used to introduce microliter-sized samples into a direct current plasma (DCP) atomic emission spectrometer is reported in this work. Several important experimental conditions were found to be important in achieving good analytical performance from the electrothermal vaporization (ETV-DCP) system. A combination of lowered plasma electrode sleeve gas flow rates, when compared to that commonly used in the DC plasma jet, and relatively low carrier gas flow rates resulted in very good analytical performance. Relative precision for the ETV-DCP instrument using B, Cd, Cu, Fe, and Pb solutions ranged between 4% and 10%. Limits of detection (LOD) lower than 100pg were achieved for these elements, roughly an order of magnitude better than other ETV-DCP studies that used commercial graphite boat/furnace combinations. In addition, good calibration linearity was observed, with 2-4 orders of magnitude linearity for the elements investigated.