EVALUATION OF A LOW-POWERED ARGON MICROWAVE PLASMA DISCHARGE AS AN ATOMIZER FOR THE DETERMINATION OF MERCURY BY ATOMIC FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY

A low-powered argon microwave plasma torch discharge is introduced into atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) for the first time. The configuration and the characteristics of the plasma for AFS are described in this paper. Some factors influencing the determination of mercury, such as the flow rates of the carrier gas and the plasma gas, are discussed in detail. The detection limit for mercury by this method is shown to be 3 ppb and the relative standard deviation for a solution concentration of 1-mu-g ml-1 is 2.5% (n = 11). The proposed method is relatively free from background interference and gives a large dynamic range.