Page 262 - Tandem Techniques

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Figure 6.14
The Inductively Coupled Plasma/Atomic Emission Spectrometer

Precautions must be taken to ensure the transfer line does not contribute significantly to band dispersion
as discussed in Chapter 3.

The ICP atomic emission spectrometer was coupled to the gas chromatograph as a tandem combination
by Duebelbeis et al. [13], who used it to develop a method for surveying the distribution of different
elements in a variety of organic matrixes. To test the method, a sample of coal was 'spiked' with a
number of different metal elements, and carbonized in a laboratory facsimile of a coal gasification
plant. The apparatus consisted of bed of the spiked coal, through which was passed a mixture of oxygen
and steam. The coal was ignited by heating a section of the tube externally with a Nichrom wire heater
coil. The effluent from the tube was passed through a series of traps. The first trap contained quartz
wool maintained at 90°C to retain the heavy tars. The gases were then bubbled through a solvent held in
a cold ice methanol bath. A third trap was used to check the efficiency of the first two traps. The
samples from the solvent trap were injected onto the GC, and the column eluent