Gold volatile species atomization and preconcentration in quartz devices for atomic absorption spectrometry

•On-line atomization of gold volatile species for AAS in quartz devices was studied.•Atomization mechanism was proposed and atomization efficiency was estimated.•Possibilities of in-atomizer preconcentration of gold volatile species were assessed.

The on-line atomization of gold volatile species was studied and the results were compared with thermodynamic calculations in several quartz atomizers, namely: diffusion flame, flame-in-gas-shield, flame-in-plain-tube, externally heated T-tube and externally heated flame-in-T-tube. Atomization mechanism in the explored devices is proposed, where volatile species are converted to thermodynamically stable AuH at elevated temperature over 500 °C and then atomized by an interaction with a cloud of hydrogen radicals. Because of its inherent simplicity and robustness, diffusion flame was employed as a reference atomizer. It yielded atomization efficiency of 70 to 100% and a very good long time reproducibility of peak area sensitivity: 1.6 to 1.8 s μg− 1. Six and eleven times higher sensitivity, respectively, was provided by atomizers with longer light paths in the observation volume, i.e. externally heated T-tube and externally heated flame-in-T-tube. The latter one, offering limit of detection below 0.01 μg ml− 1, appeared as the most prospective for on-line atomization. Insight into the mechanism of atomization of gold volatile species, into the fate of free atoms and into subsequent analyte transfer allowed to assess possibilities of in-atomizer preconcentration of gold volatile species: it is unfeasible with quartz atomizers but a sapphire tube atomizer could be useful in this respect.