I have been looking at second hand AAS equipment, but have no idea of the running costs and other traps for beginners. I was planning on using it for
mineral samples mainly, and for confirming the assay of my elements. does anyone have experience with these beasts? or am I looking at a money pit
that I will regret purchasing?
tia macckone - 4-2-2015 at 12:00
No idea, but if you see one for sale in the states, let me know.Zombie - 4-2-2015 at 12:33
bugger. I missed it...
thx anyway macckone - 4-2-2015 at 15:48
You don't want to pay shipping from NJ to Australia.
I don't want to pay freight from NJ to Colorado.
Those things weight a ton .. well a quarter ton anyway.Endo - 5-2-2015 at 15:56
Well... Once you have the instrument you need a lamp for each element you want to have the capability to analyze. You will need the appropriate gas
cylinders to 'feed' the torch. Acetylene, Air and or nitrous oxide, depending on settings you can go through the gasses fairly quickly. For
consumables you will learn to do acid digestions and dissolve samples into a solution to introduce into the flame. (acids, crucibles, volumetric
glassware, fusion chems) The aspirator system is pretty robust, you probably won't need a lot of extra parts. Thin HDPE tubing as it gets worn or
contaminated. Some assays for elements will need a modifier added to the solution to maximize a species in the flame... commonly something like
sodium chloride can act as an electron donor for a flame, but others work well with salts that have a cation in 2+ like strontium chloride. You will
want a source of good DI water, trace amounts in your water can affect your numbers.
One thing to check with these old machines, the monochromator in some of the old Perkin Elmer systems can get worn and lose accuracy because the
mirror movement system gets sloppy. If you have the option to run a standard (Lamp) with known lines through it before buying to do an accuracy check
it may save you some $$.
