High-resolution continuum-source electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometer for simultaneous multi-element determination in the spectral range of 190-780 nm

We have built a prototype atomic absorption spectrometer with an electrothermal atomizer and continuum light source for simultaneous multi-element determination. The spectral instrument consists of two parallel working Paschen-Runge polychromators having resolutions of 10 and 30 pm in the wavelength ranges of 190-350 and 350-780 nm, respectively. The instrument is equipped with a recording system, which consists of two assemblies of 14 linear CCD arrays each, connected to an analyzer for simultaneous acquisition of the emission spectra from each array. The continuum spectrum light source is a laser-driven xenon arc lamp, and the atomizer is a longitudinally heated graphite furnace with a programmable power supply. The spectrometer permits full wavelength range spectral acquisition with a temporal resolution of 2 ms. The hard- and software provide simultaneous direct determination of the number of elements in the solutions within four orders of magnitude concentration range.