High-efficiency nebulizer for argon inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

A new pneumatically driven, high-efficiency nebulizer (HEN) is explored for argon inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (Ar ICP-MS) for elemental analysis of aqueous samples. The new nebulizer operates at very low solution uptake rates (10–100 µl min^–1). Analytical performance indices for nebulization with the HEN are presented for three Ar ICP-MS systems in terms of detection limits, precision, ratio of doubly charged-to-singly charged ion, oxide ion-to-analyte ion ratio and ion kinetic energies. These characteristics also are compared with those of typical conventional pneumatic nebulizers (PN) that function at higher solution uptake rates (1–2 ml min^–1). Detection limits (ppt) similar to those realized by conventional PNs are obtained for aqueous solution introduction. In general, short-term and long-term precision of the HEN for Ar ICP-MS are better than the results for the conventional PNs.