The oxygen-shielded air-acetylene flame in emission analysis

Flame-emission studies have been made on 18 elements in the inner zone of an oxygen-shielded air-acetylene flame. The shielded flame gave higher emission sensitivity that that of the C(2)H(2)N(2)O flame for Cu and Tl, and comparable sensitivity for a number of other elements, but poorer sensitivity for elements forming stable refractory oxides in flames. The inner zone of the shielded flame has low emission-background and high flame-temperature, permitting good analytical sensitivity to be obtained with relatively low-resolution optical equipment.