History of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectral analysis: from the beginning up to its coupling with mass spectrometry

摘要

An ionised and luminous gas is called a physical plasma. It contains free electrons and ions interacting with electric and magnetic fields. In the field of plasma physics this has been known for more than 150 years. Sometimes the physical plasma is called the fourth state of aggregation, because by supplying energy to the solid state, or aggregation, it normally passes at first into the liquid and thereafter into the gaseous state of aggregation. A further supply of energy will then lead to the physical plasma. Knowledge about physical plasma began with studies of gas discharge tubes by Julius Pluecker (1801-1868) in Heidelberg and Bonn, and by his student Johann Wilhelm Hittorf (1824-1914), who later on examined electrodeless ring discharges in Munster (Germany). The two of them published an article in 1865 called, "On the spectra of ignited gases and vapours with regard to the same elementary gaseous substance". Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940) explained the processes in plasmas and discovered the electron. In 1928 the term "plasma" (from the Greek: πλασμα= formation, structure) was introduced by Irving Langmuir (1881-1951). Early efforts to maintain an induction plasma on a stream of gas could be attributed to G. I. Babat. The 1960s were the initial period of thermal plasma technology. Thereafter, it was only a matter of time before analytical spectroscopists discovered induction plasma as a spectral excitation source.