Determination of manganese in molten steel by direct atomic absorption measurement of evolved fine particles

The metal vapor evaporated from molten steel was solidified to yield fine particles. Using this technique, the resulting particles were introduced into an atomic absorption spectrometric instrument with an electrically heated absorption cell which utilized Ar as the carrier gas. The majorirty of the particles were of round shape and their diameters were less than 1 μm. The temperature of the molten steel and the absorption cell had a great influence on the sensitivity. As the absorption cell temperature increased up to 1200°C, the manganese absorbance became substantially higher. The use of the iron absorbance as the internal standard was effective in correcting the variation in the amount of fine particles introduced into the absorption cell.