Modern AAS systems are a comparatively inexpensive means to accurately detect specific elements. It is a technique that is well-suited to reaching otherwise inaccessible places, such as mines, to test rocks to see if they are worth mining. In some sectors, this method has been able to detect elements which people were previously unaware existed in certain material, such as cobalt and molybdenum in soil. In applications such as medicine and pharmaceuticals, AAS has helped revolutionise practices, detecting things such as trace toxins. In a given material, it can measure parts per billion of a gram. It is a highly sensitive method of analysis. Normally results fall within a range of 0.5 per cent to 5 per cent accuracy, but this may improve further depending on the standards set for testing and analysis. Why should I use Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy? It is fast, sensitive, specific and user-friendly. The first commercially available instruments appeared in the 1960s.Īs AAS has developed since this time, with the continuing application of new technology, including automation and computers, it has become an extremely reliable analytical technique. This led to the development of new techniques for AAS. Walsh’s breakthrough came with the realisation that he needed to be measuring absorption of light rather than emission. However, atomic absorption spectroscopy as a modern technique for chemical analysis dates from 1955, when the Lancashire-born scientist Alan Walsh published his significant paper on the potential for AAS in Melbourne, Australia. It was not until the 1930s that this technique became more widely used. Kirchhoff and Bunsen developed the spectroscope, splitting light into wavelengths. In 1817, the German physicist Josef von Fraunhofer carefully mapped out these spectral absorption lines, which are now named after him.Ī theory of spectrochemical analysis then developed with the work of the scientists Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen in 1860. When was Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy first used?Īs a phenomenon, atomic absorption spectrometry was first discovered in 1802, when the English scientist William Hyde Wollaston observed and described dark lines in the sun’s spectrum.
For practical purposes, it doesn’t really make any difference which term you use. The difference between spectroscopy and spectrometry is that spectroscopy is the study of how energy and materials interact, while spectrometry refers to how you apply this as a measuring technique. Note: AAS is also referred to as atomic absorption spectrometry. Typical calibration curve for an element measured by AAS Therefore, using AAS, you can measure for a specific element in a material, based on the amount of light absorbed at a defined wavelength, which corresponds to the known characteristics of the element you are testing for. These atoms will each have their own characteristics when it comes to absorbing energy because each element has a unique electronic structure. The atomic part refers to the atoms in a material, which will absorb radiated energy from a light source. Matter absorbs energy, which will create some sort of change in its state.
Spectroscopy is the study of how radiated energy and materials interact. View AAS products from Scimed What is Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy? Here we look at what AAS involves as an analytical technique, what it can measure, why it is useful, and the instruments involved in carrying it out. It gives a picture of what concentrations of a specific element there is in whatever material, or liquid, is being tested. Atomic absorption spectroscopy, or AAS, is a technique for measuring the concentrations of metallic elements in different materials.Īs an analytical technique, it uses electromagnetic wavelengths, coming from a light source.ĭistinct elements will absorb these wavelengths differently.
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