Automatic determination of mercury, arsenic, and other hydride-forming elements by atomic-fluorescence spectrometry

An automatic atomic fluorescence spectrometer, which consists of a reactor for vapor generation and an atomic fluorescence detector, is described in this paper. An intermittent reactor, which is simple in construction and reliable in use, is described and recommended. Specially designed hollow cathode lamp and high performance hollow cathode lamp have been successfully used as the light source in the instrument. Long lifetime, high stability, excellent detection limits and available for all the interested elements are the main advantages of the lamp. Several kinds of atomizer were compared and the result is reported in this paper. Some research results in the developing of the analytical methods suitable for the automatic instruments are also described. Using the automatic instrument, the detection limits obtained were: As, Pb, Ge, Sn, Se, Te, Bi, Sb < 9 × 10⁻¹¹ g ml⁻¹, Hg, Cd < 8 × 10⁻¹² g ml⁻¹ and Zn < 5 × 10⁻⁹ g ml⁻¹. The precision of the determination (R.S.D) was less than 2% and the throughput is around 120 determinations per hour. The instrument and its method of application have been widely used with great success in China for the determination of mercury and other hydride forming elements in geochemical sample, environmental sample, water, foodstuff, and alloy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lab Robotics and Automation 12:67–73, 2000