Thermospray flame furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (TS-FF-AAS) — a simple method for trace element determination with microsamples in the μg/l concentration range

A new flame method of atomic absorption spectrometry has been developed. The liquid sample to be analyzed is transported through a very hot, simple metal capillary tip acting as a flame-heated thermospray into a glowing atomization tube (flame furnace) which is positioned into the air/acetylene flame of a standard flame-AAS burner head. Both the complete introduction of the whole sample and the extended residence time inside the absorption volume result in an improvement of detection limits from 14 to 67 for five investigated elements. The detection limits determined using 10-μl samples amount to 0.19 ng/ml (Cd), 1.3 ng/ml (Cu), 5.2 ng/ml (Tl), 13 ng/ml (Pb) and 21 ng/ml (Hg). A relative standard deviation of 1.4–3.4% (N=12, 10 μl) was achieved. Sample volumes between 2.5 μl and 200 μl have been investigated. In the case of 10 μl the sampling frequency was three per minute. The method can also be considered as a simple, effective interface between HPLC or FIA techniques and flame AAS. The determinations can be easily automated.