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Determination of heavy metals in soil, mushroom and plant samples by Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0155-WXH)

Introduction

Heavy metals are considered to be one of the main sources of pollution in the environment, since they have a significant effect on its ecological quality. Human activity leads to increasing levels of heavy metal contamination in the environment. Heavy metals owing to atmospheric and industrial pollution accumulate in the soil and influence the ecosystem nearby. The determination of heavy metal in soil samples is very important in monitoring environmental pollution. Lead, cadmium, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, etc., were chosen as representative trace metals whose levels in the environment represent a reliable index of environmental pollution.




Principle

Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) detects elements in either liquid or solid samples through the application of characteristic wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation from a light source.
Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) is based upon the principle that free atoms in the ground state can absorb light of a certain wavelength. Absorption for each element is specific, no other elements absorb this wavelength.

Applications

Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) is an easy, high-throughput, and inexpensive technology used primarily to analyze elements in solution. As such, AAS is used in food and beverage, water, clinical research, and pharmaceutical analysis.

Procedure

1. Creating a steady state of freely dissociated ground state atoms using a heat source (flame)
2. Passing light of a specific wavelength through the flame. The wavelength corresponds to the amount of energy required to excite an electron from (typically) the ground to first excited state for a specific element.
3. Measuring the amount of the light absorbed by the atoms as they move to the excited state (the atomic absorption).
4. Using the measured absorbance to calculate the concentration of the element in a solution, based on a calibration graph.

Materials

• Spectrometer
• Radiation sources
• Atomizers
• Atomic absorption
• Spectrophotometer