Grimm-type Glow Discharge Ion Source for Operation With a High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Instrument

Abstract

A GD ion source of the Grimm-type design has been developed for operation with a new commercial double focusing ICP-MS instrument capable of higher mass resolution. Instead of introducing only the sample, a complete source arrangement is introduced into the housing of the MS system through a slide valve by a solid insertion probe. Sample changing and source cleaning is fast and the latter reduces the risk of cross contamination to a minimum. The reproducibility of the positioning of the sample and the source is verified by measuring ‘internal’ (reproducibility of the intensity measurements) and ‘external’ (the analysis as a whole when sample changing is included) reproducibilities in analytical determinations. Over the whole mass range, the sensitivity corresponds to that measured with an almost identical GD ion source and a low resolution quadrupole instrument. This demonstrates that element sensitivities are predominantly determined by the processes taking place in and the geometry of the source and not by the ion optics and mass analyser components.