Controlled atmospheres for spectrochemical analysis

Abstract

A review of the literature revealed many designs of electrode chambers which confined various gas atmospheres. The gases He, A, Oa, CQa, steam, or certain mixtures thereof were preferred in certain chamber designs, samples analyzed, elements determined, and excitation requirements. However, COa was found satisfactory when applied to one method of semiquantitative spectrographic analysis and used in conjunction with the final gas jet design described. Experiments with the gas jet and COa gas demonstrated that a relatively simple and reproducible method is available for the analysis of sample spectra in the intense CH band region from approximately 3500 to 4200 A. This part t of the spectrum contains many sensitive atomic and ionic excitation lines that can supplement other sensitive lines which may be obscured through interference.