The outstanding performance offered by High Resolution Continuum Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry is reflected in the level of sales. Analytik Jena is delighted to report that over 1000 units of its ContrAA range of flame and graphite furnace AA spectrophotometers have now been sold.
The ContrAA is unique in using a high-powered Xenon lamp as the source for all AA analytical lines between 185nm and 900nm. This eliminates the need to buy a new lamp for each element of interest and also reduces the running costs. In addition, the lamp source allows access to all available lines at the same intensity. This means that using secondary lines is now a realistic way of measuring high levels of analyte without the need for dilution and make uniform sample preparation for multi element methods possible. It also opens the possibility for the first time in an AA instrument of using molecular absorption lines such as SC for the determination of non metals such as sulphur or halogens.
The high-resolution ContrAA offers better detection limits on all elements by factors between 3 and 7. In many cases this allows the use of the flame for analysis rather than having to use a graphite furnace. This saves time with the analysis, the cost of investing in a furnace system and the ongoing costs of running a furnace system. The ContrAA is a high-resolution spectrometer that allows the user to select background correction points from the spectra at any wavelength. This gives true-simultaneous optical background correction with no false positive or negative errors.
The ContrAA also offers fast multi-element analysis, since all atomic lines are available from the single lamp. There is no need to switch between lamps for each element and wait for individual lamps to warm up and stabilise.