Laser-Excited Atomic Fluorescence of Some Precious Metals and Refractory Elements in the Inductively Coupled Plasma

Abstract

The combination of an excimer (XeCl) pumped pulsed dye laser with frequency-doubled output as an excitation source and the inductively coupled argon plasma (ICP) as an atom/ion reservoir was used in the study of the atomic fluorescence of Ag, Au, Hf, Ir, Mo, Nb, Pd, Pt, Ru, Ta, and Zr. The detection limits were found to be in the range of 1.3–58 ng mL−1 (ppb) with a linear dynamic range (LDR) of over four orders of magnitude, except for Au and Hf. These represent the first published results for laser-excited atomic fluorescence spectroscopy in the ICP cell for the elements studied, except for Mo and Zr, and the LODs found were superior to those obtained by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), except for Ag, Au, and Mo, and similar to those obtained by emission ICP.