SAMPLE INTRODUCTION IN ICP SPECTROMETRY BY HYDRAULIC HIGH-PRESSURE NEBULIZATION

Hydraulic high-pressure nebulization (HHPN) is a new aerosol generation technique in atomic spectrometry. Owing to the high aerosol yield of about 50%, the application of HHPN in ICP spectrometry requires a desolvation unit. The constructed unit consists of a heated tube and a two-stage condenser (liquid cooler, Peltier module cooler). The liquid cooled Peltier module offers variability of condensation temperature between +15 and -40-degrees-C. This temperature range is also sufficient for solvent-plasma load control of highly volatile organic solvents. The desolvation unit offers condensation efficiency of 97% for aqueous samples (-5-degrees-C) and 94% for methanol (-25-degrees-C). The analyte mass transport efficiency amounts to about 24%. In inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), significant improvements in sensitivity and detection limits of about one order of magnitude were obtained for most of the elements under investigation. Using an HPLC pump (100-400 bar), the additional facilities of an on-line high-performance flow system is offered (high-performance flow atomic spectrometry).