User:Mary Mendoza/Notebook/CHEM 571 Experimental Biological Chemistry I/2012/10/09

Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy of Au/BSA

• A rack of Au/BSA solutions was recovered and used for the assigned Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). AAS was used to strip the molecule to its elemental state.
• The entire solution set were observed to lack fibers even at high mole ratios where formation of fibers is typical. The date of which the solutions were made is unknown.
• The equipment used for AAS is by the make of Shimadzu AA-6200 Atomic Absorption Flame Emission.
• The sample cell used for this procedure is the ignited flame.
• A gold hollow cathode tube was selected for the procedure. The wavelength of the lamp was 242.8 nm.
• Two blanks were used; water and HCl. Water was chosen since it is part of the ternary mixture. The standards provided by Dr. Miller were made with HCl. In addition, HCl ionizes better and keeps the metal in solution. The standards were 5, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40 ppm Au which appeared as clear and colorless liquid solutions.
• Each blank, water and HCl, was measured and followed by autozero. Next, standards 1, 2, and 3 were measured.
• The flame is blue green in its normal state. Having run the blanks, the flame remained blue green during the re-measurement of each blank.
• During the measurement of the standards, the flame was observed to turn orange. The color orange is indicative of the ions present in the solution.