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Atomic Absorption and Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry

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Book cover Modern Methods of Food Analysis

Part of the book series: ift Basic Symposium Series ((IFTBSS))

Abstract

Observations in the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by Melvill (1756), Herschel (1823), and Talbot (1826) regarding colors imparted to flames by salts and other materials, studies of the solar spectrum by Wollaston (1802) and Fraunhofer (1817), and studies of spark- and arc-excited spectra by Wheatstone in 1835 and Foucault in 1848, respectively (Schrenk 1975), were the early beginnings of atomic emission and absorption. It is, however, the investigations on emission in about 1860 by Kirchhoff and Bunsen (1860, 1861) that are generally regarded as the foundations of analytical spectrometry. Modern analytical flame emission spectrometry dates to the work reported by Lundegårdh (1934) on the determination of a number of metallic elements in biological samples using air-acetylene flame excitation, a prism spectrograph, and photographic recording. It is considered that quantitative (arc/spark) atomic emission spectrochemical analysis originated about 1882 with Hartley using a spark excitation source. Arc and spark emission spectrometry was the method of choice for simultaneous multielement determinations during the three decades (1930–1960) in many fields of analysis notably in metallurgy and geology. Flame emission spectrometry gained rapidly in popularity following the Introduction of commercial instruments in 1937–1945.

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  1. Chemistry and Biology Research Institute, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, USA

    M. Ihnat

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  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Kent K. Stewart

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, California, USA

    John R. Whitaker

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Ihnat, M. (1984). Atomic Absorption and Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry. In: Stewart, K.K., Whitaker, J.R. (eds) Modern Methods of Food Analysis. ift Basic Symposium Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-7379-7_7

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