Various applications of Zeeman atomic absorption spectroscopy

The application of the Zeeman effect to atomic absorption spectroscopy has been studied over the past several years. This technique has a larger area of application than conventional AAS because of its high degree of selectivity. The ZAA technique can be used for organometallic species determination by interfacing with a high-pressure liquid chromatograph. Various kinds of eluents can be directly introduced in the ZAA system; even organic solvents or high-concentration salt solutions. For example, the Co atom in the functional center of Vitamin B12 molecule was separately analyzed in the presence of much larger amounts of inorganic Co. In the ZAA technique, interference caused by direct spectral overlap can also be corrected. As a typical example, the Sb line at 217.02 nm overlaps the Pb absorption line at 217.00 nm. However, 1000 ppM of Pb did not cause any interference signal in the Sb analysis by ZAA. This is especially important in the analysis of gun powder residue that is often carried out by chemists working in the forensic field. In the determination of trace elements in matrices of unknown composition, the ZAA technique achieved highly reliable results by employing the standard addition method to correct for chemical interferences, because any nonspecific absorption or emission does not give rise to interference signals with this technique