The applications of a commercial gas/liquidseparator coupled with an inductivelycoupled plasma mass spectrometer

摘要

A commercially available hydride generator, with a novelmembrane gas-liquid separator, has been coupled to a new ICPMSinstrument which itself features many unique designconsiderations. Little or no optimization of the mass spectrometer orionization source was required to obtain excellent analytical data;and a variety of matrices have been analysed.The elements As and Se are usually used to demonstrate theeffectiveness of a hydride generation system, and these are ofparticular importance, bearing in mind potential Ar molecularoverlaps with isotopes of interest. The flexibility of the hydridegeneration ICP-MS system is highlighted, with the inclusion ofanalytical figures of merit for the elements Sn, Sb, Ge and Hg, aswell as As and Se. Data obtained by ‘standard’ pneumaticnebulization on the ICP-MS is compared with that obtained withthe hydride generator for all of the elements.Improvements of between 50 and 100 times were gained inmeasurements of three sigma detection limits for all elements in thedeterminations, including Hg. Measurements were made on severalisotopes for particular elements, and the data is included for thepurposes of comparison. Stabilities of between 1 and 2.5% wereobtained for 0.5 ppb solutions over 10 min measurement periods, alldata is presented without using an internal standard.Finally, analytical data from seawater standards, spiked with lowlevels of As and Se and calibrated against aqueous standards,demonstrate excellent recoveries. This is of particular interestbearing in mind the well-documented molecular interferences fromhigh chloride matrices on As and Se analysis.