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Nonthermal Optical Emission Spectrometry: Direct Atomization and Excitation of Cadmium for Highly Sensitive Determination
journal contribution
posted on 2016-03-31, 00:00 authored by Yi Cai, Ya-Jie Zhang, De-Fu Wu, Yong-Liang Yu, Jian-Hua WangThe
low atomization and excitation capability of nonthermal microplasma,
e.g., dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), has greatly hampered its
potential applications for the determination of metals in solution.
In the present work, an inspiring development is reported for direct
atomization and excitation of cadmium in aqueous solution by DBD and
facilitates highly sensitive determination. A DBD microplasma is generated
on the nozzle of a pneumatic micronebulizer to focus the DBD energy
on a confined space and atomize/excite metals in the spray. Meanwhile,
an appropriate sample matrix and nebulization in helium further improves
the atomization and excitation capability of DBD. With cadmium as
a model, its emission is recorded by a CCD spectrometer at 228.8 nm.
By using an 80 μL sample solution nebulized at 3 μL s–1, a linear range of 5–1000 μg L–1 along with a detection limit of 1.5 μg L–1 is achieved, which is comparable to those obtained by commercial
bulky inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-based instrumentations.