Modular L-design of hydride atomizers for atomic absorption spectrometry

A novel modular L-shaped design of hydride atomizer for atomic absorption spectrometry is described. It makes it possible to replace the optical tube of the atomizer and, mainly, to employ optical tubes made also from other materials than fused quartz. The design is useful mainly for further improvement of hydride atomizers based on the multiatomizer concept. Employing selenium hydride as the analyte and arsine as the interferent, a preliminary evaluation of performance of three types of L-shaped multiatomizers based on various optical tubes in terms of sensitivity, linearity of calibration graph and resistance to atomization interferences is made. The “classical” T-shaped multiatomizer was employed as a reference.The L-shaped multiatomizer with the optical tube analogous to that employed in the “classical” T-shaped multiatomizer offers virtually the same performance as the reference multiatomizer. Optical tube made of fused quartz with holes with smaller diameters does not offer significantly better performance compared to the reference T-shaped multiatomizer. However, the L-shaped multiatomizer with optical tube fabricated from porous quartz glass overpowers all the other multiatomizers substantially in terms of the resistance against interferences: even the maximum As interferent concentration of 5 µg ml− 1 does not significantly influence the observed signal. This should be compared with multiatomizers based on plain fused quartz tubes with holes: tolerance limit around 0.5 µg ml− 1; interferent concentration of 1 µg ml− 1 causing 20% signal depression.