Novel Approaches to the Application of Electrochemical Volatile Compounds Generation in Spectrometric Methods

Various possibilities for the use of electrochemical generation of volatile compounds for the determination of trace and ultratrace quantities of elements using atomic absorption spectrometry and optical emission spectrometry, respectively, were studied in this work. The Thesis is divided into four thematic sections. Electrochemical cold mercury vapor generation is common to the first two parts. The third part is devoted to electrochemical generation of the volatile form of cadmium and the last part deals with the use of the electrochemical hydride generator as a derivatization unit for speciation analysis of arsenic compounds. The optimization of each individual determination was carried out including, for example, various designs of the generator of volatile compounds (forms) of the analyte, the changes in the design of the gas-liquid separator, optimization of the concentration and the flow rate of all the solutions and the carrier gas. However, the value of the electric current employed was the most important parameter. In the first section, the in-situ trapping system of the cold mercury vapor generated in the graphite furnace (with the inner surface covered with a gold foil) of the atomic absorption spectrometer was also designed and optimized. The absolute limit of detection, 80 pg, was..