An argon–nitrogen–hydrogen mixed-gas plasma as a robust ionization source for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

Multivariate optimization of an argon–nitrogen–hydrogen mixed-gas plasma for minimum matrix effects, while maintaining analyte sensitivity as much as possible, was carried out in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. In the presence of 0.1M Na, the 33.9±3.9% (n=13 elements) analyte signal suppression on average observed in an all-argon plasma was alleviated with the optimized mixed-gas plasma, the average being −4.0±8.8%, with enhancement in several cases. An addition of 2.3% v/v N2 in the outer plasma gas, and 0.50% v/v H2 to the central channel, as a sheath around the nebulizer gas flow, was sufficient for this drastic increase in robustness. It also reduced the background from ArO+ and Ar2+ as well as oxide levels by over an order of magnitude. On the other hand, the background from NO+ and ArN+ increased by up to an order of magnitude while the levels of doubly-charged ions increased to 7% (versus 2.7% in an argon plasma optimized for sensitivity). Furthermore, detection limits were generally degraded by 5 to 15 fold when using the mixed-gas plasma versus the argon plasma for matrix-free solution (although they were better for several elements in 0.1M Na). Nonetheless, the drastically increased robustness allowed the direct quantitative multielement analysis of certified ore reference materials, as well as the determination of Mo and Cd in seawater, without using any matrix-matching or internal standardization.