Flow Injection and Atomic Absorption Spectrometry - An Effective and Attractive Analytical Chemical Combination

One of the advantages of the flow injection (FI) concept is that it is compatible with virtually all detection techniques. Being a versatile vehicle for enhancing the performance of the individual detection devices, the most spectacular results have possibly been obtained in conjunction with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Initially with flame-AAS (FAAS) procedures, later for hydride generation (HG) techniques, and most recently in combination with electrothermal AAS (ETAAS). The common denominator for all these procedures is the inherently precise and strictly reproducible timing that the sample is subjected to in FI from the point of injection/introduction to the point of detection, which in turn allows suitable on-line pretreatments to be effected. The present paper will - via a number of selected examples - point to some of the potentials at hand, encompassing the use of FI as a suitable vehicle for reproducible sample presentation to the AAS instrument, as a means for facilitating conversion techniques for determination of anions, for allowing on-line preconcentration procedures via incorporated column reactors or via (co)precipitation, for exploiting kinetic discrimination schemes in hydride generation reactions, and for providing new and exciting possibilities in assays of ultra-levels of metalions when utilized in combination with ETAAS.