Atomic spectrometry update. Advances in atomic emission, absorption and fluorescence spectrometry, and related techniques

Abstract

This review covers a relatively mature area of atomic spectrometry, hence there are fewer new developments than in newer research fields. It should be read in conjunction with the previous year’s review and with other related reviews in the series. The application of solid phase extraction for preconcentration and matrix separation remains the most popular topic in the literature. It seems that practically any substance has been used in some way to effect this purpose when coupled with FAAS or ICP-AES. Laser based methods and speciation analysis are the main areas where novel developments are still being made, though even here much of the published work has moved toward routine application. There is very little being published on the analysis of solid samples other than that which comes under the purview of LIBS and related techniques. The application of chemometrics to atomic spectrometry seems to have ceased almost completely, the exception being the use of pattern recognition techniques for classifying origin, and even that is now fairly routine.