What is atomic energy absorption?

Answer 1

Atomic absorption spectroscopy is the use of principles of atomic absorption of light to determine how much of a metallic element is in a sample. It works by using a few principles which are faily simple and easy to understand on their own and are then combined to make the machine and cause it to work. Let's have a quick look. When we burn something, we can, if we burn it hot enough, break it down into atoms. As metal atoms are burned, we're going to excite them. That is, we're going to excite their outermost electrons and push them to higher energy levels. Note that there are a couple of quantum mechanical rules that an electron must follow. First, it will only jump to a specific higher energy level. A higher level always exists, but what that means is that there are no "half-levels" or "sorta close" situations. And the jump represents a specific quantity of energy. Also, that electron must get exactly the right quantity (get it? quantity? quantum?) of energy in a packet to make the jump. That means that if it doesn't get enough, it doesn't make a "half-jump" and if it gets too much, it will reject the packet of energy. The transition will only occur with the absorption of the exact quantity of energy needed to make that specific transition. Good? Let's jump. We burn our sample in a flame or furnace. Then we shine a special light through it. This special light is for a specific metal. It emits photons of just the right energy necessary for the valence electrons to make that jump to the next energy level. (That's the "level thingie" we just talked about.) It's a setup, 'cause we picked our light source to have just the right energy of light for this metal. So with the light shining and the sample burning, we look at the light coming out the other side of the flame. There won't be as much light coming out as went in, because some of the valence electrons in our sample absorbed some of the light and moved out to the next energy level for a moment. The more atoms of that metal we're looking for that are in our sample, the more light photons there are that "won't make it" through the flame. They got absorbed by valence electrons. With it so far? Good. One more thing and we're good. We can look at the amount of light coming through the flame before we burn our sample to "calibrate" the unit. Then we burn our sample and look at the amount of light coming through the flame. The more light that doesn't make it, the more that had to have been absorbed by the metal (specifically its valence electrons) in our sample. And that would mean that there was "more" of the metal in our sample. We can actually quantify (tell how much) metal was in our sample by this method, which we call atomic absorption spectroscopy. You got a couple of links if you want them. At least look at the drawing and the cool pics in the first link. It should lock things in for ya.

Answer 2

The only thing I can think of is that some elements such as boron and cadmium absorb neutrons very effectively, so if you introduce them into a working reactor it will shutdown or at least reduce power level.