Abstract
A high power microwave induced plasma (MIP) source using an Okamoto cavity can be sustained by He, N2 and air at atmospheric pressure. The cavity has been originally developed to produce an alternative analytical ionization source to argon inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for mass spectrometry (MS). This review introduces that an annular-shaped high power (1.0 kW) nitrogen microwave induced plasma (N2-MIP) sustained at atmospheric pressure by Okamoto cavity, as a new excitation source for atomic emission spectrometry (AES), has been demonstrated. Subsequently the combination of high power N2-MIP-AES with the continuous-flow hydride generation method was examined for the determination of such hydride-forming elements as arsenic, selenium, antimony, tellurium and bismuth. Moreover, the same technique has been extended for two (arsenic and antimony)- and three-element (arsenic, antimony and bismuth) simultaneous determination. After the interference study, the present method has been applied to the determination of trace concentrations of the above-mentioned hydride-forming elements in several steels reference materials. The results obtained by this method were in good agreement with their certified values.
