COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF ACETIC-ACID WITH AXIALLY AND RADIALLY VIEWED INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY - INFLUENCE OF THE OPERATING-CONDITIONS

Acetic acid was selected as a highly perturbing matrix for the compari son of matrix effects between axial and radial viewing modes in ICP-AE S. The effect of acetic acid (5 and 10% v/v) on the intensities of var ious ionic lines in ICP-AES mas studied under extreme operating condit ions, i.e., robust and non-robust conditions, A cross-flow nebulizer a ssociated with a double-pass spray chamber was chosen as a sample intr oduction system. The influence of the operating conditions on the Mg I I 280 nm/Mg I 285 nm line intensity ratio was also studied. This work confirmed that, under so-called robust conditions, i.e., high rf power and low carrier gas how rate, the acetic acid caused an enhancement o f the signal intensity, regardless of the energy line and the viewing mode, which could be assigned to a change in the aerosol formation and transport. An increase in the solvent transport rate and a significan t modification of the primary, and especially the tertiary, aerosol dr op size distributions mere observed in the presence of acetic acid. He nce, finer aerosols mere obtained when acetic acid mas present.