Atom Reservoirs:

As described earlier in AFS the analyte sample is to be converted within atom vapour in gfound state before being excited through suitable radiation. The holder or cell having these vaporised atoms is known as atom reservoir or atom cell. Let us learn about various kinds of atom reservoir employed within AFS.

In flame atomic fluorescence spectrometry a flame acts as the atom reservoir. It is also known as flame atom cell. The mainly of the atomic fluorescence work is commonly finished in the hydrogen diffusion flame as this has a very low background level. The hottest parts of this flame are only around 1000°C although the bulk of the flame is at about 350 - 400°C. This allows excellent detection limits to be acquired since of the extremely low background. Thus, analysis within these flames seriously suffers from matrix effects.  Like flames are only really meaningful while associative pure solution is used. This could be achieved along with the help of separation/isolation/ preconcentration operations on the sample.

A combination of acetylene/nitrous oxide and oxygen/argon/ hydrogen using a rectangular flame along with a premix laminar flow burner is also used broadly. The higher temperatures of premixed hydrogen and hydrocarbon flames provide much better atomisation of several species, but still along with considerably higher backgrounds.