Perkin Elmer AAnalyst 800 GFAA

Atomic Spectroscopy is a technique for determining the elemental composition of an analyte by its electromagnetic or mass spectrum. Atomic Absorption works when the ground state of an element absorbs energy by means of a specific wavelength of UV or visible light. This causes the element to become excited. The amount of energy required to get the specific amount of the target element to enter its excited state is measured and a direct correlation between concentration and energy is used to quantify the specific mass of target element/volume on the sample.

The Perkin Elmer AAnalyst 800 Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption (GFAA) spectroscopy excites a liquid sample in a small graphite tube allowing a very low range analysis of metals in solution, in the parts per billion (ppb) and parts per trillion (ppt) ranges. The specific ranges of elements are all element and lamp dependent.

The AAnalyst 800 uses just 20 microliters of sample, and the sample cups for the autosampler hold only 2-3 ml of liquid, making the GFAA a good choice for elemental analysis when researchers are extremely sample limited. This GFAA analyzes one element at a time, on a single wavelength only. Sequential series for multiple elements can be created and run separatley using the same batch of samples. PerkinElmer’s WinLab32 software guides users through calibration and sample file setup and provides a visual representation of the calibration curve and each individual emission being analyzed.