The mechanism of atomisation of iron, cobalt and nickel during electrothermal atomisation atomic absorption spectrometry

Experimental evidence is presented to support the theory that the carbon furnace atomisation of iron, cobalt and nickel occurs via direct evaporation of the respective metals. Reduction of the metal oxides to solid metal, by carbon, is identified as a precursor to atomisation as follows: [GRAPHICS] Evidence for the above mechanism is based on the correlation of measured metal appearance temperatures with thermogravimetric and X-ray powder diffraction analyses of the residues formed on heating metal nitrate solutions under appropriate conditions.