Atomic fluorescence flame spectrometry using a mercury line source

The possibility of exciting the fluorescence of several elements with the “overlapping” lines of other elements and the effectiveness of exciting the fluorescence of Fe, Mn, Ni, Cr, Tl, Cu and Mg with a 90 W mercury discharge lamp, are discussed. A method of increasing the fluorescence radiation by suitable optics, with a simple adaptation of a Jarrell-Ash AA spectrometer, is described. A two-pass system of the incident radiation into the flame is coupled with a mirror, in the optical axis, which reflects the fluorescence radiation emitted at the opposite side to the monochromator slit. This produces an increase of 168% of the signal. Detection limits for 10 elements are reported.