Analysis of conducting solids by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with spark ablation
Abstract
Spark ablation was applied as an inexpensive technique for direct sample introduction in elemental analysis by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with restriction to conducting samples. For these investigations, a commercial spark ablation system developed for application in ICP atomic emission spectrometry was coupled with a laboratory-built ICP-MS system. The spectra show only small contributions from disturbing polyatomic species; in particular, argides can be neglected. In the analysis of steel, detection limits below 100 ng gā1 were determined; the precision was about 3%. A calibration procedure was applied to a set of steel standard reference materials. The relative sensitivity factors correspond to values obtained by glow discharge MS with identical MS equipment.