THEORETICAL-ANALYSIS OF CALIBRATION CURVES FOR GRAPHITE-FURNACE ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY

It is proposed to include in the theoretical modelling of calibration curves for graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) the fraction of non-absorbed radiation, alpha, in the total intensity of radiation from the light source and, when Zeeman spectrometers are used, the Zeeman sensitivity ratio, R, as well. The inclusion of these parameters permits one to derive, under certain reasonable assumptions, simple relations connecting the measured absorbance, A, with the values of A0 corresponding to the absorbance of an ideally monochromatic signal and satisfying the Bouguer-Lambert-Beer law. These relationships can be used for the linearization of calibration curves in GFAAS, for the interpretation of some experimentally observed relationships and for the optimization of analytical conditions.