Reduction of Matrix Effects in ICP-MS by Optimizing Settings of Ion Optics

摘要

The effect of ion optics settings on the degree of suppression of analyte signals due to the presence of different basic elements in a sample solution, such as manganese, copper, indium, lanthanum, hafnium, and lead, was investigated on an example of an XSeries II inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The effect of atomic mass and the concentration of the matrix element on the optimum values of ion optics settings and the change in the analyte signals was studied. It was shown that a decrease in the potential of the extractor lens to -300 V can significantly reduce the matrix effect. As an example, the results of determining impurity elements in solutions containing up to 1 g/L of lanthanum were obtained using standard settings of the spectrometer with a reduced voltage on the extractor. It was shown that the optimization of ion optics settings enables the use of more concentrated solutions, thus reducing the detection limits for elements by several times.