Studies towards understanding the mechanism of organic reagent enhancement in flame and plasma atomic absorption spectrometry

A series of organic reagents have been tested in atomic absorption measurement for signal enhancement of metal elements. Organic reagents like tetrabutylammonium bromide are demonstrated to enhance the absorption sensitivity to some specific elements such as calcium and chromium. A group of amines were found to have significant enhancement for chromium and calcium measurements. The function of organic reagents in flame and plasma atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) was investigated in this work with emphases on mechanism of signal enhancement and interference suppression. An alternative mechanism of organic reagent enhancement in flame and plasma AAS has been suggested based on the experimental results obtained in this work. The reduction environments in flame and plasma produced by the organic reagents are considered as major reason for the signal enhancement.