Trends of development in plasma techniques for atomic spectrometric analysis: A review

Trends of development in atomic spectrometry with plasma sources for optical emission spectrometry and mass spectrometry are discussed, especially for inductively coupled plasmas and discharges under reduced pressure. Important fields of application such as materials analysis and environmental analysis with special reference to the speciation of traces of heavy metals are discussed.Introductory lecture at the Symposium on Plasma Techniques of the 1994 International Symposium on Microchemical Techniques, Montreux, May 16–20, 1994