Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) was one of the first ‘instrumental’ techniques to be adopted widely by geoanalytical laboratories once commercial instrumentation became available in the 1960s, following the practical development of the technique both by Walsh and by Alkemade and Milatz in the early 1950s. The technique offers the advantages that instrumentation is relatively simple, cheap and rugged. The AAS instrumentation measures light absorbed at a characteristic wavelength by atoms of an element generated when a sample solution is atomized in an air–acetylene or nitrous oxide-acetylene flame. The light source is normally a hollow cathode lamp in which the cathode is coated with a compound of the designated element. When energized, the lamp output comprises the intense atomic emission spectrum of that element. This emission is directed through a flame propagated from a slot burner. The intensity transmitted through the flame is measured using a monochromator tuned to the...
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Bibliography
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Potts., P.J. (1998). Atomic absorption spectrometry. In: Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_17
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