| Search our quarter-million Q&As |
Home of the finishing HOTLINE since 1989
-----AA vs ICP for water and metal analysis
Q. AA or ICP -- which is better for water/ metal analysis? Please consider cost, ease of use, accuracy, and service.
Thanks,
- New York, New York
2001
A. Hi, Carol,
In addition to the responses you may see here, see if you can get hold of "Fine Lines: Printed Circuit Board Queries" by Mike McChesney in the March 1993 issue of Plating & Surface Finishing because it was written in an attempt to answer that question. Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
A. The answer is it depends.
Accuracy ICP beats AA
AA ppm ICP sub ppm: e.g., Cd AA about 0.5 ppm, ICP 0.01 ppm are approx. limits.
Cost: AA beats ICP hands down. Lower running costs, lower equipment costs.
Ease of use - about the same.
Support - depends on your supplier.
What do you want to do with the equipment?
Plating bath analysis - AA
Effluent - I would go AA and use voltammetry to get Cd done.
Please let me know if this helped
Martin Trigg-Hogarth
surface treatment shop - Stroud, Glos, England
Q. Thanks for the response. We are a small lab (with a limited budget) and we want to buy one of these two equipments for water and wastewater analysis- metals. I appreciate the responses!
Now that you have more information , what do you think?
Which is better? AA or ICP Note: we probably could afford the ICP with the work we have the potential to get. Cost is, however, one of the factors to consider.
Let me know what you think, guys.
Thanks,
- New York, New York
A. Carol, one other factor to consider in your evaluation is the number of metals that you wish to test for. If you have several processes or metals to be analyzed, the ICP is significantly faster. Current ICP models will be able to analyze 100+ different metals within minutes. To perform the same function with an AA would take hours. At this point, you need to weigh your needs and wants to determine which instrument would best suit your company.
Best of Luck.
Kansas City, Missouri
A. Martin gave you a good summary. ICP-MS costs more to buy and upkeep is a LOT more. A significantly more complex machine. Check the CFR for wastewater analysis. If ion chromatography is allowed, it would be another option.
James Watts- Navarre, Florida
Thanks so much for the informative responses. Your answers weigh in our determination of the instrument that best suits our needs. It is nice to see that the scientific community has reached out to me on this. I really appreciate all the responses and we will carefully consider them in our evaluation of each instrument.
On behalf of our small group, thanks.
- New York
2001
A. I agree with all the previous comments. However, Martins comments regarding voltammetry seemed to get passed over all too quickly. Martin has done a lot of work on voltammetry in the past; I am sure that it was not his intention for this technique to be overlooked!
Voltammetry may lack some of the versatility of the other techniques but remains a powerful option for our industry. Modern equipment is compact, considerably smaller than either AAS or ICP and has considerably cheaper set-up and running costs.
The number of test samples to be tested may be a deciding factor! I believe AAS, ICP and IC would provide for better automation and throughput of samples.
I hope this may be of some help.
laboratory director - Burnham-on-Sea, UK
April 2, 2008
Sorry! Finishing.com is temporarily Read-Only.
Ted Mooney is retiring but I have several offers to take it over.
We're working hard to make sure we find it the best new home.