Determination of halogenated organic compounds by electrothermal vaporization into a helium microwave induced plasma at atmospheric pressure

Helium microwave-induced plasma emission spectrometry is utilized for the determination of high-molecular-weight halogenated organic compounds. The analyte is desolvated, electrothermally vaporized, and swept into the plasma to produce cationic emission from the halogen. The detection limit for Citex BC-26 was 8 ng at both the Cl and Br emission lines with linear ranges of over 2 orders of magnitude for Br while Cl showed evidence of self-absorption. The method is applied to the determination of the fire retardant, tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate.