ACHIEVING EFFICIENT, MULTIELEMENT ATOMIZATION CONDITIONS FOR ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY USING A PLATFORM-EQUIPPED, INTEGRATED-CONTACT FURNACE AND A PALLADIUM MODIFIER

The feasibility of using a single set of atomiser conditions for a suite of elements covering a wide range of volatilities has been investigated with a new integrated-contact furnace (ICF). This ICF features an in-built, integrated platform and a longitudinal a.c. magnet arrangement to facilitate inverse Zeeman-effect background correction. The results show that involatile elements (molybdenum, vanadium) can be effectively vaporised from the platform at a vapour phase temperature of only 2660 K. Atomisation efficiencies were calculated by comparing experimental characteristic masses (m0) with those obtained using a theoretical model at this temperature. Elements having as diverse physical properties as cadmium and vanadium were found to be efficiently atomised in the ICF when using a palladium modifier. It is concluded that the platform-equipped ICF presents much better prospects than furnaces based on the Massmann design for multi-element atomic absorption instruments.