Efficient use of the NAR-1 pneumatic nebulizer in plasma spectrometry at sub-milliliter liquid consumption rates

Abstract

A commercial pneumatic nebulizer NAR-1 is applied for sample introduction in plasma optical emission spectrometry. In this demountable nebulizer, the nebulizer gas is divided into several thousands streams passing through the replaceable microcapillary array to multiple the aerosol generation efficiency. Both the nebulizer performance and nebulization characteristics depend on technologically controlled microcapillary array parameters. This approach gives the ability of precisely matching the nebulizer optimum working conditions at different gas flow rates depending on requirements of the dedicated spectrometric technique. The NAR-1 can be operated at a sub-milliliter per minute sample flow rate to achieve high nebulization efficiency up to 50%. Key aerosol diagnostics data and analytical figures of merit are presented for the NAR-1 used in ICPOES and MIPOES of different instrumental parameters and compared with those of standard concentric nebulizer. The MIPOES was applied to stoichiometric analysis of nanocrystalline spinels, taking advantage of the improved signal stability obtained when the NAR-1 was used for aerosol generation.