ANALYTICAL PERFORMANCE IN FLOW-INJECTION SIMULTANEOUS MULTIELEMENT INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA OPTICAL-EMISSION SPECTROMETRY EMPLOYING A CYCLONIC SPRAY CHAMBER

Simultaneous multielement-inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) with flow injection (FI) and a small-volume cyc lonic spray chamber is described. Analytical performance of FI-ICP-OES was studied with the use of a concentric nebulizer and the cyclonic s pray chamber for carrier nebulization. A noise study using Fourier tra nsformation analysis was also carried out to identify the factors that affect the analytical figures of merit of FI-ICP-OES. At a carrier fl ow rate of 1.0 mL/min, the major source of noise, between 0 and 15 Hz, was the peristaltic pump's roller rotation; this pump noise disappear ed at a how rate of 3.5 mL/min. A number of other discrete low-frequen cy noise sources were also observed at flow rates below 2.5 mL/min, wi th resultant degradation of precision and detection limit.