Nonthermal Optical Emission Spectrometry: Direct Atomization and Excitation of Cadmium for Highly Sensitive Determination

The 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.