Atomic absorption spectroscopy, or AAS, is a technique for measuring the concentrations of metallic components in various materials. As an analytical technique, it utilizes electromagnetic wavelengths, coming from a light source. Different elements will absorb these wavelengths differently. It Provides a picture of what concentrations of a particular component there is in whatever substance, or liquid, has been analysed. Here we look at what AAS entails as an analytical approach, what it could measure, the reason it is helpful, and the tools involved in doing it. Spectroscopy is the study of how radiated energy and materials interact. Issue absorbs energy, which will create some type of change in its condition.
The nuclear part refers to the electrons in a substance, which will absorb radiated energy from a light source. These atoms will each have their own characteristics when it Comes to absorbing energy since every element has a distinctive electronic structure. Therefore, using atomic absorption spectroscopy, you can measure for a specific component in A material, dependent on the quantity of light absorbed at a specified wavelength, which corresponds to the known features of the element you are testing for. As a phenomenon, atomic absorption spectrometry was Found in 1802, when the English scientist William Hyde Wollaston detected and described dark lines from the sun’s spectrum. In 1817, the German physicist Josef von Fraunhofer carefully mapped out these spectral absorption lines, which are now named after him. A concept of spectrochemical analysis then developed with the work of the scientists Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen in 1860.
Kirchhoff and Bunsen developed the spectroscope, dividing light into wavelengths. It was not until the 1930s This technique became more widely used. But, atomic absorption spectroscopy as a contemporary technique for chemical analysis dates from 1955, once the Lancashire-born scientist Alan Walsh released his important paper on the potential for AAS in Melbourne, Australia. Walsh’s breakthrough came with the realisation He needed to Be measuring absorption of light instead of emission. This resulted in the development of new methods for AAS. The first Commercially available tools emerged in the 1960s. Since AAS has developed since this time, together with the continuing Application of new technologies, including computers and automation, it is now a very reliable analytical technique. It is fast, sensitive, specific and user-friendly. Normally results fall in a range of 0.5 percent to 5 per Cent accuracy, but this might improve further based on the criteria set for analysis and testing. It is an extremely sensitive method of investigation. In a given substance, it can measure parts per billion of a gram. In applications like pharmaceuticals and drugs, AAS has Helped revolutionise practices, discovering things like trace toxins.