Advances with tungsten coil atomizers: Continuum source atomic absorption and emission spectrometry

Two new tungsten coil spectrometers are described: a continuum source tungsten coil atomic absorption spectrometer and a tungsten coil atomic emission spectrometer. Both devices use a 150 W tungsten coil extracted from a slide projector bulb. The power is provided by a computer-controlled, solid state, constant current 0-10 A supply. The heart of the optical system is a high-resolution spectrometer with a multi-channel detector. The continuum source system employs xenon or deuterium lamps, and is capable of multi-element analyses of complex samples like engine oil, urine, and polluted water. Spiked engine oil samples give mean percent recoveries of 98 ± 9, 104 ± 9, and 93 ± 0.8 for Al, V, and Ni, respectively. Copper, Zn, and Cd are determined in urine samples; while Cd, Co, Yb, and Sr are determined in water samples. Detection limits for Cd, Zn, Cu, Yb, Sr, and Co are: 8, 40, 1, 4, 1, and 4 μg l− 1. The technique of tungsten coil atomic emission spectrometry using a 150 W commercial projector bulb is reported for the first time. Calcium, Ba, and Sr are determined with detection limits of 0.01, 0.5, and 0.1 μg l− 1. Relative standard deviations are lower than 10% in each case, and Sr is determined in two water standard reference materials.