Design consideration and temperature determination of an automated graphite furnace cup system used for direct sample introduction for ICP optical emission spectrometry

Four graphite cup furnace designs for use with an automated direct sample introduction device for ICP-OES are described. The heating rate and terminal temperature of each cup in the plasma is determined by means of a radiation thermometer operating in the range 0.7-1.0 μm and some correlation between heating rate and peak height for the four elements used in the study (nickel, chromium, manganese and lead) is observed. The use of a glassy carbon support improves sensitivity for nickel and a reduction in graphite rod diameter improves this significantly further. Detection limits and relative standard deviations using the four furnance designs are also discussed. © 1984.