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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Atomic spectrometries?

Also known as: atomic emission spectrometry · atomic absorption spectrometry · hollow-cathode lamp · inductively coupled plasma

Definition 32.14 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 32 — Mass Spectrometry and Atomic Spectroscopy

In atomic emission spectrometry the sample is atomised and excited in a flame or a plasma, and the intensity of an emission line of the element is measured. In atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) the sample is atomised in a flame or a graphite furnace and the absorbance of the atoms is measured at a resonance line, emitted by a hollow-cathode lamp whose cathode is made of the element itself. In an inductively coupled plasma (ICP), argon heated by a radio-frequency field to several thousand kelvin atomises and ionises the sample; the plasma feeds an emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) or a mass spectrometer (ICP-MS).

An atomic absorption spectrometer (schematic). The lamp emits the lines of copper itself, among them the resonance line at 324.75\, nm; the copper atoms in the flame absorb it, and the monochromator isolates that line for the detector.
An atomic absorption spectrometer (schematic). The lamp emits the lines of copper itself, among them the resonance line at 324.75 nm324.75\,\mathrm{nm}; the copper atoms in the flame absorb it, and the monochromator isolates that line for the detector.
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