Determination of sulfur in coal using direct solid sampling and high-resolution continuum source molecular absorption spectrometry of the CS molecule in a graphite furnace

Abstract

An analytical method has been developed for the determination of sulfur in coal using direct solid sample analysis in a graphite tube furnace and high-resolution continuum source molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS GF MAS). The molecular absorbance of the carbon monosulfide molecule (CS), which is formed in the vaporization stage, has been measured using the rotational line at 258.033 nm. Several chemical modifiers were tested and Ru, applied as permanent modifier was chosen, because it exhibited the best performance. The optimum pyrolysis and vaporization temperatures were found to be 500 °C and 2200 °C, respectively. Aqueous standard solutions prepared from l-cysteine were used for calibration, as the linear regression obtained for this standard was not significantly different from that for a certified coal reference material (CRM) according to a Student t-test. The results obtained for sulfur in three coal CRM and six additional samples also showed no significant difference for the two calibration techniques according to the same statistical test. The sulfur concentration in the coal samples was found between 3.5 mg g−1 and 33.7 mg g−1 with a typical repeatability around 10%. The limit of detection for the direct analysis of solid coal samples was better than 0.1 μg S.