| Abstract: | An automated emission spectrometer has been developed around a simple commercial instrument. The manner in which a computer is used for control and the way data are acquired and assimilated are discussed. The interfacing to the computer is described, sample programs are illustrated and methods of analyses are given. Sensing is achieved through photon counting. The linearity of the system has been examined and it was found that, for lithium, quantitative results can be obtained with an accuracy of 1 per cent for a concentration range of four orders of magnitude. The time required for analysis is discussed and, although the spectrometer is serial in nature, the increased information rate obtained through photon counting results in high speed data acquisition. |
