DETERMINATION OF TRACE AG, AU, GE, PB, SN AND TE BY MICROWAVE PLASMA TORCH ATOMIC-EMISSION SPECTROMETRY COUPLED WITH AN ELECTROTHERMAL VAPORIZATION SAMPLE INTRODUCTION SYSTEM

An electrothermal vaporization (ETV) sample introduction device tantal um filament was combined with microwave plasma torch atomic emission s pectrometry (MPT-AES) for determination of several trace elements. Som e operating parameters of the system were optimized. The effects of ea sily ionized elements (EIEs) on the emission intensities of the tested elements were studied in detail. It was revealed that there was no in terference resulting from small amount of sample matrix; while with th e existence of large amount of sample matrix, the method of standard a ddition could be used to determine trace elements in samples. So, no m odifier was required in this method. The results indicated that ETV-MP T-AES not only has the advantage of micro sample consumption (a volume of 3 mu l for each injection), but also offers high sensitivities for the determination of Ag, Au, Ge, Pb, Sn and Te as compared with those obtained with pneumatic nebulization (PN) MPT-AES. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.