DRY ASHING, SOURCES OF ERROR, AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION IN AAS

Three different stages of the analytical chain will be discussed. Firs tly, the merits and demerits of the traditional dry ashing, a well est ablished technique that is sometimes viewed with unwarranted sceptisis m. Secondly, control of ashing temperature, background correction syst ems and autosampler volumes in AAS-determinations will be discussed. T hirdly, the role of intercalibrations and the use of reference materia ls will be discussed in terms of their limitations in providing inform ation on analytical performance. Two ways to obtain more complete info rmation on a laboratory's performance will be described.