Omenetto Cume Flashcards
What are thw two principial goals of analysis
Sensitivity and selectivity
What has development enabled new SAD methods and at the time are they practical?
High power wavelength tunable lasers - and they are not - not used for routine use but the paper wants to extrapolate their applciation
What are the major issues with SAD
Low efficiency of breaking something down into atoms and then distinguishing that signal from noise or interfering signal (so again sensitivity and selectivity)
This paper makes distinguishment between theoretical and actual LOD - why?
the current most sensitiite for SAD is ICP or electrically generated discharges - but these are at theoretical limits whereas LEAF laser excited atomic fluorescence is not and could theoretically do much better SAD
What are the two major classes of atom probing methods looked at in terms of SAD
Methods based on detection of charged species and methods based on fluorescence absorption and emmission
What is the key step in detection of charged based species and what are some examples given:
IONIZATION! some examples are Resonance ioniztn and laser enhanced ionization
What is the key step in detection of charged based species and what are some examples given:
IONIZATION! some examples are Resonance ioniztn and laser enhanced ionization
What does the figure on RIS vs LEI(OGE) show (and what is OGE)
THe figure shows the two ionization methods RIS vs LEI and more importantly how energy is gained and lost
RIS is two vertical - pointing up straight lines indicating radiational transition between energy states (absorption or pumping - if downward arrow indicates loss of photon through emission or fluorescence)
LEI (LASER!)has a vertical upward arrow but then a wavy arrow
THE WAVY indicates a thermal mode of gaining or losing energy - so upwards is thermal activation downwards is loss of energy such as collisional cooling
What is the optogalvanic effect
The Optogalvanic effect is the change in the conductivity of a gas discharge induced by a light source (typically a laser). This effect has found many applications in atomic spectroscopy and laser stabilization.[1]
Describe RIS and what is it and what are some key characteristics/issues
resonance ionization - basically hit with rapid succession of photons until ionized
since needs to be rapid - very improbably unless using a laser (in fact more than one laser)
Issue: NEEDS TO BE super clean sample chamber free from extraneous ions so at the time not feasible for real world dirty samples
What methods are capable of SAD?
RIS, resonance and non resonance fluorescence detected under energy level saturation conditions (LEAF -laser excited atomic fluorescence)
Atomic fluorescence generated by a laser in a carbon furnace atomizer
microwave induced plasma coupled with microarc atomizer and atomic absorption with graphite furnace atomizer
What is LEI and describe it strength sweaknesses
Laser enhanced ionization - a combination of thermal and irradiation -
atoms in a flame are always partially ionized so can increases percentage ionzied through irradiation
so keep atoms in a hotcell and shoot laser at it - detection is done through monitoring resistance or conductivity
AMENABLE to use in flames or plasma etc -
HIGH SENSITIVITY and high selectivity
NOT BELIEVED TO BE ABLE TO DO SAD
How does the author compare ionization to atomic absorption emission fluorescence techniques
AAES are Much more common - widely adapted in the world at the time - more typical lab analysis
What are the 3 fluorescence methods and describe them (energy level methods not analytical)
So resonance, direct line and stepwise
Resonance is straight up and down a solid line -
Direct line is straight up then a straight line down partially - emission - then collisional cooling the rest of the way
and step wise is straight up then collision cooling partially- then emission the rest of the way down
How are the 3 fluorescnece methods split up
REsonance vs NON resonance - resonance is just absorption from ground to excited and then emission (OF A RESONANT PHOTON OF SAME ENERGY ABSORBED)
Non resonance - emission of a photon OF AN ENERGY AND WAVELENGTH DIFFERENT FROM THAT ABSORBED (stepwise and direct line>
How can once increase fluorescence sensivity? and how do incident light levels play a role
Use a laser - at low incident light levels - the fluorescence is directly proportional to intensity in laser power
AT HIGH VALUES - can induce saturation
What is SATURATION in this regard (atomic energy level saturation)
basically the upper and lower enerhgy states are equalized at higher laser spectral irradiance (UNITS!)
the basis is when laser radiation is incident- a fraction is raised to upper state and this fraction increases as laser irradiance increases
The energized population can undergo another way to grounds state called SIMULATED EMISSION - identical to absorption but in a toward transition (eg resonant photon encounters an atom in an excited state) - if enough happens - upward and downward transition is equally probable
A
Why is LEAF a contender for SAD detection
Beacuse in energy level saturation - radiation based transition up and down GREALTY outweigh any mechanism making the excited state population determined entirely by the atoms intrinsic properties as opposed to the environment or anything else - this makes it a lot more controlled and stable /predictable
Also sources of error/variation such as quenching or laser power variation are minisucle compared to amount of resonance fluorescence
Whats the diagram for absorption and esmission events look liek
absorption straigh tup, emssiion is up wavy and down straight down
What are some absorption emission tehcniques and why shouldn’t they be as sensitive
ICP, Microwave induced plasma, and dc plasma - they cannot produce energy level saturation in the atomic emission process - thermodynamically impossible to inject enough thermal energy to sturate atomi energy levels - the temp required would be infinite
Whats the problem with atomic absorption methods
shold be less sensitivie they require measruement of small differences between two relatively large light levels P0 and P - drift or noise from the light source then precludes detection of anything approaching single atom level
So P0 and P are the power of radiation coming from the lamp or source and P is it post sample
These are too large light levels the natural drift and noise of these large levels absolutely precludes the detection of anything single atom level
What is the issue with saturated non resonance LEAF for SAD on real samples
IN ability to completely atomize the sample
also distinguishing signal from various sources of background from more conventional atomization technique eg incandescent carbon furnace - or flickering of laser
How does the author believe we can make LEAD for SAD more applicable
observing the atom over a longer period of time (should produce 10^8 photons per second)
What are the two atomization schemes
Both involves making a solution then 1) is sprayed into a flame or plasma (droplets must be evaporated deolated to free particles which then must vaprozie to make ions) or 2) dried as a solute in a furnace or heated cuvette and then thermally varpozied (ELECTROTHERMAL ATOMIZER)
so itemized - solid samples -> solution -> either spraying and desolvation or just drying -> vaporization -> atomization (sample vapor is atomized)
Author proposes 2 ways to increases effiency of atomization what are they
1) understand every process and optimzie
2) Brute force - high enough temp so each sample 100% atomized
3) find a new high efficiency atomization which gentle action that can thoroughly atomize
In which context does the paper talk about understanding atom formation
_ HE IS ONLY FOCUSING ON THE INVESTIGATIONS IN HIS LABORATORY WHICH IS ATOM FORMATION IN ANALYTICAL FLAMES AND PLASMA
Explain the authors conclusions on optimize atomization parameters (including figure 6)
In understanding atomization with plasma and flame - an issue is that aerosols are uneven so they created a set up in which one droplet is sent at a time and took a single flash photograph showing the single stream being sent to an acetylene torch - (rate of 1k/second) - due to stability can treat this as a time lapse even though different droplets Can see it moves to flame, evaporate as they move upward and solute particle vaporizes leaving luminescent plume -Ultimate conclusion though is even though can visualize each step - don’t know enough about it to assess/manipulate - this is for the future - long term goal
How does ICP work (review figure 7)
inductively coupled plasma is created by a coil around a quartz tube containing plasma gas (usually argon). t
1)through inductive coupling - the coil generates a field that
2)accelerates ions in the gas which collide with argon atoms and ionzie them which causes electrons to be released.
3)The electrons are accelerated to produce further ionization
4) final result is plasma with max temp of 10k C into which we can spray our sample
What is the problem with brute force atomization
The calculated energy to atomize a molecule is not very high but the effective temperature needed for it is very high - considerable - they point to probably the most successful as using thermally hot sources for atom formation and excitation - particularly ICP
Figure of Merit for ICP
Strength - atomization relatively complete due to high temp
Leads to high sensitivity and low interferences (small)
High temp at which emission generatedalso helps sensitivity
DOwnsides:
1 Spectral background very high due to hot plasma gases
2 Due to high heat a variety of elements are ionized including alkali and alkaline earth metals which have strong emission spectra which are scattered within in the monochromator or spectrometer used to separate elemental emission lines - and this scattering causes erroneous signal (this requires a high resolution detection system to distinguish this emission)
3 The source has flickering noise which causes variations in the atomic elemental signal and background (difficult to detect single atoms)
4 Large dilution with argon gas necessary (15-20 mL/min) - 1 ug/mL of sample reduced to 10^10 atoms/cm^3 in plasma - of course an issue for SAD and detection limits
5 Also appears to be near or at its theoretical limit for detection
What is the authors take on high efficiency atomization methods
Can be designed for the most specific methods such as fluorescence in mind which is good
They mostly involved thermal generation of relatively volatile elements held in quiescent environment for longer observation times
However this is specific and most elements are not volatile and require more energy (such as the furnace) to vaporize
Likes sputtering
Explain ion sputtering
1st) Sample is conductive (if not make conductive by mixing (admixing) with graphite)
2) put in chamber with inert gas (several torr pressure- high pressure)
3) Hold sample at high negative voltage (500 V( - current of 5-300 mA allowed to pass (at the cathode?)
4) this results positive ions of inert gas are generated and attracted to cathode - causing bombardment of this cathode with inert gas ions which fragments the surface (these fragments are hopefully our atoms
5) atoms now in a dense cloud above sample surface ready for SAD hopefully
Pros and Cons of sputtering
Pros: “outside in process” cloud of atoms in a gradient (less as move farther away) so can sample the various depths
2) no explosive sample fragmentation in thermal volatilization
3) Generated in a quiescent environment allows for long observation times(better sensitivity9)
4) High efficiency
CONS:
1) Slow- requires minutes to form a stable population
2) samples must be conductive
3) must be held in a closed, evacuated chamber which is the biggest issue (real samples I guess)-experimentally inconvenient
Talk about potential imrpvoements in sputtering
Atmospheric sputtering can make it quicker (micro arc technology)
- also requires no vacuum
and can use non conductive samples (just requires conductive substrate)
Author sees potential for this and MIP (microwave ICP microwave induced plasma - like ICP but worse less efficient, less dilution though ) in conjunction as promising