"Zeeman Electrothermal Atomizer Laser Excited Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry"

Abstract

The work of Bolshov et al. (1) demonstrated elemental limits of detection at the femtogram level (part-per-trillion in solution) using Laser Excited Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (LEAFS) in a graphite cup atomizer. We have now shown that these detection limits can be equaled by using a graphite tube atomizer. Detection limits for LEAFS of seven elements are reported in Table 1. In this work two different graphite tube atomizers were used. One atomizer was a Perkin Elmer HGA-500 furnace (approximately 28 mm in length). The other was a laboratory constructed furnace (approximately 8 mm in length). The excitation source used for this work was a dye laser pumped by an excimer laser (308 nm). The dye laser output was frequency doubled to excite atomic transitions below 350 nm. The detection system consisted of a monochromator, a photomultiplier tube (PMT), a boxcar integrator and a computer.