STUDIES OF THE DESOLVATION MECHANISM OF THE THERMOSPRAY (TSP) - NEW EXPLANATION ON ANALYTICAL SENSITIVITY ENHANCEMENT WITH TSP COUPLED HPLC-FAAS

Previous cadmium speciation studies using a modified thermospray (TSP) -coupled-HPLC-Flame AAS system gave significant improvements in limits of detection (LOD). Experimental data also revealed that a smaller ca pillary tip orifice size and a larger capillary internal diameter (ID) provided better LOD and relative standard deviation (RSD). Further st udies to understand the desolvation mechanism inside the TSP capillary generated a new concept of the possible desolvation process occurring inside the heated TSP capillary. The separated components in the HPLC efficient were preconcentrated in a series of concentrated solute plu gs producing concentrated plugs of free atoms and hence increased abso rption.