Advances in electrothermal atomization for atomic absorption and atomic fluorescence

Electrothermal atomizers (ETAs) are commonly used atom cells for elemental analysis. In this article, the fundamental principles of ETAs are described, including instrumentation and operating principles. Several recent applications of ETAs are discussed involving atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and laser excited atomic fluorescence spectrometry (LEAFS). These include a clean room atomizer cabinet for ETA-AAS, multielement continuum source ETA-AAS, standardless ETA-AAS for medium volatility elements, slurry atomization of food colorants by ETA-AAS, the determination of lead in blood by tungsten coil-AAS, the determination of arsenic and selenium by hydride generation ETA-LEAFS, and the determination of cadmium and zinc by double resonance ETA-LEAFS.