Increasing the sensitivity of electrochemical generation of volatile Te species

Abstract

Vapor generation is a very sensitive sample introduction technique for the determination of hydride forming elements by atomic spectrometry. However, the drawback of Te determination using vapor generation methods lies in the low stability of the volatilized Te species. We report a sensitive method for the determination of Te(IV) based on electrochemical vapor generation and atomic fluorescence spectrometry. Transport losses were reduced and sensitivity of the method was improved by cooling the gas-liquid separator and by using a mix of Ar and H2 as the stripping and carrier gas. The limit of detection, repeatability and generation efficiency are 0.14 ng mL−1, 2.1% and 79%, respectively.