NITROUS OXIDE-HYDROGEN FLAME IN ATOMIC ABSORPTION AND EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY

A study of the behavior of twelve metals in the premixed nitrous oxide-hydrogen flame suggests only a limited usefulness for this flame in analytical atomic absorption and emission spectroscopy, in spite of the fact that its temperature is not more than 150° below that of nitrous oxide-acetylene. Metals which form stable monoxides, such as aluminum, vanadium, and titanium, are almost undetectable in absorption, whereas their limits of detection in emission are very much poorer in nitrous oxide-hydrogen than in nitrous oxide-acetylene. These data do not support several of the main conclusions in the paper by Dagnall, Thompson and West [Analyst 93, 153 (1968)]. The nitrous oxide-hydrogen flame, however, may be useful for emission studies of easily atomized metals and for reducing several chemical interferences encountered in cooler flames without at the same time producing the high degree of ionization found for some metals in nitrous oxide-acetylene and oxygen-acetylene flames. © 1969.