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When a solid is heated, it emits a more or less continuous Spectrum over a wide range of wavelengths and this is called incandescence. However, when gases or vapours are heated under the same conditions, spectroscopic examination of the light emitted discloses a series of lines, often very complicated in structure, at those specific wavelengths that are characteristic of the elements present. These bands, or lines of emitted light, represent energy changes that occur when electrons orbiting the nucleus of the respective atom change energy levels. The study of this emission process is called Atomic Emission Spectroscopy. In contrast, atomic absorption spectroscopy is the compliment of emission spectroscopy in that it is based on the measurement of the radiant energy absorbed by free atoms in the gaseous state.
Atomic emission and atomic absorption spectrometers are in common use in many analytical laboratories and are frequently employed to identify the presence of certain elements in a sample; the procedures can be very sensitive and, at the same time, provide completely unambiguous identification. The older types of spectrometer were a little cumbersome, and not very sensitive, but with the advent of simple and inexpensive ways of producing inert-gas plasma, the situation has changed radically and the techniques are now very sensitive and have been used very successfully for many years. The technique of atomic emission spectroscopy will be considered first.
About the Author
RAYMOND PETER WILLIAM SCOTT was born on June 20 1924 in Erith, Kent, UK. He studied at the
University of London, obtaining his B.Sc. degree in 1946 and his D.Sc. degree in 1960.
After spending more than a decade at Benzole Producers, Ltd. Where he became head of
the Physical Chemistry Laboratory, he moved to Unilever Research Laboratories as
Manager of their Physical Chemistry department. In 1969 he became Director of Physical
Chemistry at Hoffmann-La Roche, Nutley, NJ, U.S.A. and subsequently accepted the position
of Director of the Applied Research Department at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Norwalk, CT, U.S.A.
In 1986 he became an independent consultant and was appointed Visiting Professor at Georgetown
University, Washington, DC, U.S.A. and at Berkbeck College of the University of London; in 1986
he retired but continues to write technical books dealing with various aspects of physical chemistry
and physical chemical techniques. Dr. Scott has authored or co-authored over 200 peer reviewed
scientific papers and authored, co-authored or edited over thirty books on various aspects of
physical and analytical chemistry. Dr. Scott was a founding member of the British chromatography
Society and received the American Chemical society Award in chromatography (1977), the
M. S. Tswett chromatography Medal (1978), the Tswett chromatography Medal U.S.S.R., (1979),
the A. J. P. Martin chromatography Award (1982) and the Royal Society of Chemistry Award in
Analysis and Instrumentation (1988).
Dr. Scott’s activities in gas chromatography started at the inception of the technique,
inventing the Heat of Combustion Detector (the precursor of the Flame Ionization Detector),
pioneered work on high sensitivity detectors, high efficiency columns and presented fundamental
treatments of the relationship between the theory and practice of the technique.
He established the viability of the moving bed continuous preparative gas chromatography,
examined both theoretically and experimentally those factors that controlled dispersion
in packed beds and helped establish the gas chromatograph as a process monitoring instrument.
Dr. Scott took and active part in the renaissance of liquid chromatography,
was involved in the development of high performance liquid chromatography and invented
the wire transport detector. He invented the liquid chromatography mass spectrometry
transport interface, introduced micro-bore liquid chromatography columns and used them
to provide columns of 750,000 theoretical plates and liquid chromatography separations
in less than a second.
Dr. Scott has always been a “hands-on” scientist with a remarkable record of accomplishments in chromatography ranging from hardware design to the development of fundamental theory. He has never shied away from questioning “conventional wisdom” and his original approach to problems has often produced significant breakthroughs.