Atomic absorption spectrometry is the most widely used technique worldwide for the determination of metals. Its relative low cost compared with other methods of analysis make it available for practically any laboratory. In order to improve the performances of AAS techniques, several non-conventional strategies are being studied in our laboratory. These include:
- Use of suspensions to avoid the tedious sample dissolution stage and to reduce the risk of contamination or analyte loss.
- Development of fast-heating methodology in ETAAS following the rules of analytical minimalism.
- Design and optimization of new fully computer-operated flow manifolds to facilitate the practice and to improve the performances of FAAS. Aspects such as automatic calibration, on-line dilution and/or treatments, design of expert systems, innovative procedures for signal treatment, etc., are included.
- Application of the optimized procedures to the rapid determination of metals in foods, clinical and environmental samples.
Agriculture and food production is one of the most important activities of our country. LC is also easily available worldwide and represents an excellent tool to monitor both natural substances and those present as a consequence of human activity. Our efforts are also focused on:
- Optimization of FI procedures as a first stage to develop post-column reactions for LC methods.
- Development and optimization of new LC procedures.
- Study of new hybrid LC-AAS procedures for speciation purposes.
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