BENEFITS OF A MICROCONCENTRIC NEBULIZER FOR THE MULTIELEMENT ANALYSIS OF SMALL SAMPLE VOLUMES BY INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY

A microconcentric nebulized was used at very low sample flow rates to determine 12 elements in a few hundred microliters of sample by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Performance data will be presented, including sensitivity, spike recoveries, detection limits and stability which will demonstrate that ppt levels of the elements Fe, Ca, and K, which require cold plasma conditions, can be determined in the same multielement run as the other nine elements which require normal plasma conditions. It will be shown that this will be achieved without any physical modification to the torch or sampling depth, without any retuning of the mass spectrometer, and without any sacrifice in analytical performance.