ANALYTICAL LETTERS, cilt.37, sa.5, ss.1025-1034, 2004 (SCI-Expanded)
The effect of exhaustion hood flow rate in the laboratory was investigated. It has been observed that this parameter significantly affects the analytical signal. This effect was more evident in cold vapor (CV) atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) signal when unheated quartz T-tube atomizer (QTA) was used as atom cell. At maximum exhaustion hood flow rate, the peak height and peak area values for Cd decreased to 36% and 35%, respectively, of those obtained under no exhaustion. When CV cell with both ends covered with quartz plates was used, exhaustion hood flow rate did not affect the analytical signal significantly. The exhaustion hood flow rate effect was less pronounced in case of heated QTA as compared to unheated QTA. In addition to exhaustion hood flow rate, the air movements around the atom cell also influenced the analytical signal and precision of the measurement.