Flow injection on-line preconcentration and separation coupled with atomic (mass) spectrometry for trace element (speciation) analysis based on sorption of organo-metallic complexes in a knotted reactor

This article presents the state of the art of flow injection ( FI) on-line preconcentration and separation based on sorption of organo-metallic complexes on the wall of a knotted reactor (KR) coupled with atomic (mass) spectrometry for trace element (speciation) analysis. In the last 7 years the KR has been successfully exploited as sorption medium, and demonstrated to be an attractive alternative to the C-18 microcolumn in FI on-line preconcentration techniques. The advantages and disadvantages of the KR sorption system, design of FI manifolds, choice of complexing agents, consideration of a washing step, choice of eluents, and analytical applications for various atomic spectrometric techniques are discussed, with emphasis on ETAAS. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.