Abstract
The atomic concentration available for excitation in atomic absorption (AA) and atomic fluorescence (AF) spectrometry can be increased by maintaining a low concentration of species, such as O, OH, etc., to minimize compound formation and maintaining a fairly low temperature to minimize ionization. An effective means of accomplishing this is to use a graphite furnace (at a temperature of about 2000°K). Such a furnace if flushed with argon provides a nearly ideal environment for atomization of the sample. L'vov has used such a system for AA. More recently Massman, and Woodriff, have described similar systems for AA and have obtained excellent senstivities for elements normally difficult to atomize in flames, e.g. Al and Sn. Massman also used a graphite furnace with hollow cathode discharge tube sources for AF and again obtained good sensitivities for several elements even though his sources were of low intensities. The major difficulties encountered in using graphite cells have been poor reproducibility in sampling and the presence of high background.
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