Advances in chem. modification electrothermal at. absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) are reviewed with an emphasis on the progress made after the publication of the previous extensive review (Tsalev et al., Spectrochim. Acta Rev. 1990, 13, 225). Among the topics discussed are the useful effects, drawbacks, and limitations of chem. modifiers; thermal stabilization and isoformation effects; the rational integrating of chem. modification in anal. procedures; classifications of modifiers and analytes based on theor. and empirical approaches; mechanisms; guidelines for selection and optimization of chem. modifier compns.; and the progress made on mixed, composite, and permanent modifiers. The review is supplemented by an exhaustive bibliog. of .apprx.1000 refs. covering the period of 1990-1996. This large amt. of information is organized in four tables arranged in an alphabetical order of analyte elements for easy ref.: non-ETAAS applications of chem. modification in electrothermal vaporization-plasma spectrometric techniques; applications of instrumental techniques; and theor. approaches for studying mechanisms, recent anal. procedures involving chem. modification, and applications in preconcn. and speciation studies. [on SciFinder (R)]