Even theory can be fun: the exciting growth of knowledge in electrothermal AAS

The idea is ingenious: one introduces an unknown mass of analyte into an enclosed, chemically nonreactive chamber. The sample is introduced in the form of an exactly pipetted volume of a liquid. The chamber is heated slowly to a low temperature to remove all solvents and then, in an infinitely short time, to a temperature high enough to atomize 100% of the analyte. Depending on the absorption properties of the analyte atoms, a certain mass of analyte atoms (which can be calculated from physical constants) will absorb 1% of the radiation passing through the chamber. From the absorption signal one can clearly calculate the analyte mass and analyte concentration in the sample; accurately, precisely, without standards and interferences, said the inventor of graphite furnace AAS, Boris V. L’vov.