A guide for the quantitative elemental analysis of glass using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The element analysis of glass samples for forensic use has been an interest in our group at Florida International University for over eight years as glass evidence can provide a way of associating a suspect to a crime Laser ablation has been incorporated in our analytical scheme due to the many advantages that solid sampling holds over digesting of the glass followed by solution analysis using ICP MS. The optimized conditions developed in our laboratory and by others are presented here for a specific combination of laser ablation system and ICP-MS instrument. The expected instrument responses for specific analytic conditions are presented. The method recommends using Si-29 as an internal standard employing single spot ablation modes at a spot size of similar to 50 mu m and collecting similar to 60 seconds of signal. Helium is sued as a scavenging gas and a matrix-matched solid standard is recommended for quantification purposes. The procedure described should permit anyone with the described instrument combination or similar setup to achieve good accuracy and precision for the elemental analysis of glass using LA-ICP-MS.