Absolute methods of quantitation in glow discharge mass spectrometry with a time-of-flight mass analyzer

Abstract

Several absolute quantitation strategies have been evaluated for multielemental analysis in glow discharge mass spectrometry. A method for standardless analysis is described that offers accuracy within an order of magnitude, without relying on any calibration factors or internal standards. However, the accuracy of this method can be improved by two- to four-fold through use of relative sensitivity factors (RSFs). These factors, determined from a global set of standards that included iron, nickel, cobalt, and copper matrices, were fairly independent of the matrix. Similar results were obtained using RSFs from the global set, RSFs from standards with a similar matrix, and RSFs from a single standard. When RSFs were employed, experimental results were determined with a mean accuracy of 5–12% for analyte concentrations greater than 1%.