Characterisation of an Ar-H2-O2 ICP by OES: Measurement of the atomic concentrations of H and O

Abstract

In order to characterize an inductively coupled plasma torch used in refining of metallurgical silicon, we have developed a spectroscopic method based on absolute emissivity measurements and Abel inversion. This method permitted to measure the concentrations of atomic hydrogen and atomic oxygen, which are among the reactive species involved in the purification process. Assuming LTE, the temperature profiles are deduced from the emissivity of the Argon lines. The concentration of atomic oxygen is deduced from the intensity ratio O/Ar. The hydrogen concentration measurement has to take into account the Stark broadening and the Doppler broadening of the hydrogen lines. The comparison between experimental and simulated line profiles permits to determine this concentration. The method has been tested on 2 kW and 30 kW inductively coupled plasma torches at atmospheric pressure. The results show that the concentrations of atomic oxygen and atomic hydrogen can be measured with an accuracy of 25%. The main disadvantage of this method is that, using emission, it does not permit to measure the concentration in the "cold" zone of the plasma, i.e. at the edges.