ELECTROTHERMAL FACTORS OPTIMIZATION IN ELECTROTHERMAL ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY VIA AN OPTIMAL EXPERIMENTAL-DESIGN MATRIX

A new approach is proposed to optimize some instrumental electrothermi c parameters, i.e. injected volume, calcination duration, calcination and atomization temperatures, gas flow, in electrothermal atomic absor ption spectrometry. It is based on the monitoring of the detection lim it estimation variation by using an unconventional experimental design well adapted to a particular experimental domain. This method was tes ted on Cd, Mn and Cu in sea water. By comparison with the default oper ating conditions, the limits of detection were improved in some cases and always obtained on carrying out less experiments than usual. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science B.V.