Question: Using UVC or "deep UV" light to detect lead by fluorescence

The last paper mentioned above is(I think) using chemiluminesence to generate the light(Flouescent detection of lead in... ByYan- Shiuan Wu, Et al.).The h2o2 is the first clue. The second one is the Amplex ultra red. These are reagents made by Thermo for chemiluminescence. More to come.

The first article from" research gate "is a little more interesting. It has lead forming something similar to chelates. The summary of the article was only available, but it had chemical structures drawn. It maybe fluorescing, but it is probably mostly due to the compound "L" (a mixture of methylenedianiline and anisaldehyde).

I worked a lot on lead with atomic aborpion(AA) and related techniques. The two lead lines we normally used were 283 nm and 214 nm. Of course, these aren't visible. One technique that we briefly studied in college, but I've never seen used, is atomic fluorescence spectroscopy. I looked it up and saw all kinds of crazy set ups from easy to wild. Thought I'd throw that in as a last thought. It might be worth looking into.

That looks like a hollow cathode lamp. But there are other kinds. It should have the element on the base plus usually the operating current range. Go with the minimum current needed. As the lamps get older, the minimum current needed goes up. The amount of life ( as in operating hours) in the lamp is not huge. Some of them have a running time meter on the side to let you know how much time they have been in use. I think you want to stay away from these if possible. One of the papers from 1979 showed using a microwave, instead. By the way, I listed the two lead lines as 283 nm and 214 nm. We used 214 nm for Zn. If needed we would look for an alternate line around 217 nm. For Pb. My bad.

Aanalyst (a model of atomic absorption spectrometer that we had)hollow cathode lamps new are running for about $350. So when there are hollow cathode lamps advertised on ebay for $20, there's probably something wrong. It's usually that the hollow cathode lamp is nearly dead. If they have a running time meter on the hollow cathode lamp, And it shows low running time,it might be worth the gamble. Otherwise....

You know, getting a couple of these that could be "disposable" might not be a bad idea. Working with 400 volts isn't a terribly high voltage, but it's still high enough to let the smoke out of parts (i.e. Kill them). It looks like the operating voltage is about 400V. I'm old school and would try it with either a step up transformer or a 120v transformer and a voltage multiplier. High voltage Electrolytic capacitors are getting kind of hard to find these days. But there are ways around it. Caps in series with resistors across them. Sorry, I'm old school. How is the new approach to the problem? Thanks and regards.

Here are a couple of reference: "Studies in atomic fluorescence spectroscopy -III:microwave excited electrodeless discharge tubes as spectral sources for atomic fluorescence and atomic abstinence spectrometry" by R.M.Darnell et. al. Talanta, volume 14 issue 5, may 1967, pages 551-555

Another reference. "Some recent developments in atomic fluorescence spectrosopy" by T.S.West Analytical Chemistry, ( presented at 26 th international Congress of pure and applied chemistry , Tokyo, Japan, 4-10 Sept 1977), 1979 pages 837-843.

We also used graphite furnace AA, also called GFAA. One common analytical instrument is ICP (inductively coupled plasma). I've used them a couple of times. The instruments were large, at the time 4ft x 4ft x 4 ft ( that's been a while ago, so I'm sure they are smaller now) and used a lot and power. The company I was visiting had a special power line just for the ICP, because of the high power requirements. There are two common kinds of detectors, optical emission ( OE) and mass spec (MS). That's been a while ago, so the instrument size and power requirements should be lower, now. That's just to give an idea of what some of the instruments can use. The GFAA used a 220 line, was much less expensive and smaller than the ICP, but didn't have the same resolution. Oh well.