Effects of capillary diameter on thermospray sample introduction to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Abstract

Decreasing the exit orifice diameter for thermospray vaporisation to 50 µm is shown to provide analyte transport efficiencies of 53% and signal to noise ratio enhancements of about 40 when compared with a pneumatic system for the introduction of samples into an ICP. Higher exit gas velocities with lower diameter capillaries are thought to provide improved primary and tertiary aerosols. Cascade impactor studies suggest that improvements in tertiary aerosols result in a more efficient utilisation of the transported analyte for signal production.