Element analysis without standards in spark source mass spectrometry with low voltage vacuum arc discharge and automatic photoplate evaluation

Abstract

With a system for automatic evaluation of photographic plates in spark source mass spectrometry, the complete information on the photographic plate is used for the concentration procedure, i.e. all isotopes of singly and multiply charged ions contribute to the analytical results. Experiments show that the ion intensities of elements in their various ionization states lie on parabolas. The position of the parabola of impurity elements within a matrix depends mainly on that matrix and shows a characteristic relation to the analytical result.