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While ICP-MS is a powerful technique, users should be aware of its limitations. Firstly, the intensity of the signal varies with each isotope, and there is a large group of elements that cannot be detected by ICP-MS. This consists of H, He and most gaseous elements, C, and elements without naturally occurring isotopes, including most actinides.
There are many different kinds of interferences that can occur with ICP-MS, when plasma-formed species have the same mass as the ionized analyte species. These interferences are predictable and can be corrected with element correction equations or by evaluating isotopes with lower natural abundances. Using a mixed gas with the argon source can also alleviate the interference.
The accuracy of ICP-MS is highly dependent on the user’s skill and technique. Standard and sample preparations require utmost care to prevent incorrect calibration curves and contamination. As exemplified below, a thorough understanding of chemistry is necessary to predict conflicting species that can be formed in the plasma and produce false positives. While an inexperienced user may be able to obtain results fairly easily, those results may not be trustworthy. Spectral interference and matrix effects are problems that the user must work diligently to correct.
In order to illustrate the capabilities of ICP-MS, various geochemical applications as described. The chosen examples are representative of the types of studies that rely heavily on ICP-MS, highlighting its unique capabilities.
With its high throughput, ICP-MS has made sensitive analysis of multi-element detection in rock and mineral samples feasible. Studies of trace components in rock can reveal information about the chemical evolution of the mantle and crust. For example, spinel peridotite xenoliths ( [link] ), which are igneous rock fragments derived from the mantle, were analyzed for 27 elements, including lithium, scandium and titanium at the parts per million level and yttrium, lutetium, tantalum, and hafnium in parts per billion. X-ray fluorescence was used to complement ICP-MS, detecting metals in bulk concentrations. Both liquid and solid samples were analyzed, the latter being performed using laser-ablation ICP-MS, which points out the flexibility of the technique for being used in tandem with others. In order to prepare the solution samples, optically pure minerals were sonicated in 3 M HCl, then 5% HF, then 3 M HCl again and dissolved in distilled water. The solid samples were converted into plasma by laser ablation prior to injection into the nebulizer of the LA-ICP-MS instrument. The results showed good agreement between the laser ablation and solution methods. Furthermore, this comprehensive study shed light on the partitioning behavior of incompatible elements, which, due to their size and charge, have difficulty entering cation sites in minerals. In the upper mantle, incompatible trace elements, especially barium, niobium and tantalum, were found to reside in glass pockets within the peridotite samples.
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