Slurry nebulisation of geological materials into argon, argon-nitrogen and argon-oxygen inductively coupled plasmas

Abstract

The variation of net signal to background (S/B) ratios with observation height in Ar, Ar-N₂ and Ar-O₂, inductively coupled plasmas were studied for aqueous solutions and for slurries of homogeneous glasses. Trassy-Mermet demountable and extended torches were used. Whereas the S/B profiles for aqueous solutions varied smoothly, slurry atomisation produced irregular profiles attributed to differences in decomposition and atomisation of refractory particles and particles of varying grain size. The use of mixed gas plasmas for slurry atomisation results in a lowering of the zone of maximum S/B ratio and enhanced signals for some of the analyte lines. Differences were observed in the intensity profiles for both atom and ion lines and for the two torches used.