REDUCTION OF THE SAMPLING TIME IN ELECTROTHERMAL ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY

A low-cost device is described which allows a commercial autosampler to be started before the furnace programme has ended. The time of initiation can be programmed from the furnace controller. For a standard solution of aluminium, overlap times of up to 15 s could be used satisfactorily before the sensitivity and precision deteriorated. Using a more conservative overlap time of 10 s, the device was applied to the routine determination of lead in blood after de-proteinization with nitric acid. For 100 samples split into 5 batches, comparison of results with and without the device showed no apparent difference. With the device, therefore, reduction in cycle time of 10-15 s may be made without detriment to performance.