Applications of Zeeman Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry in the Chemical Laboratory and in Toxicology

The book aims at presenting an exhaustive survey of the applications of Electrothermal Atomization Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ETA-AAS) with Zeeman background correction in a variety of fields. The unique role played by the technique in solving important analytical problems encountered today is highlighted throughout the 29 chapters which make up this multiauthored work. The overall picture that emerges from this collection of contributions testifies to the maturity reached by this instrumental methodology and lays emphasis on its capabilities, still unrivalled for many elements in terms ofoutstanding detection power afforded and minimal amounts of sample required.After an introductory chapter reviewing the major milestones of ETA-AAS over the decades, with special regard to the history and theory of the Zeeman effect and its use in background correction, the contributions which follow are distributed into four main categories, dealing with the analysis respectively of environmental samples, natural waters, foodstuffs and specimens relevant to clinical and toxicological chemistry. The substantial impact of the technique, as deduced from the literature published so far, as well as its future prospects are outlined in the final paper.