Elemental imaging method based on a dielectric barrier discharge probe coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

An elemental imaging method based on a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) probe as a sputtering source coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been demonstrated. The DBD probe is simple to construct and the discharge power for producing micro plasma jet at ambient condition is as low as 3.75 W. To investigate the sputtering process, the major operating parameters of this technique are demonstrated by detecting 23Na, 27Al, 29Si, 44Ca, 55Mn and 57Fe in rock standard reference materials GBW07108. The reproducibility of the parallel detection was 1% (n = 7) for Hg in ABS sample was obtained. Based on these conditions, the elemental imaging is successfully obtained in the lead-based glaze ceramic with 206Pb, 207Pb, and 208Pb, Chinese seal script with 202Hg and siliceous stromatolites with 27Al, 29Si, and 44Ca. When the 100 μm capillary was used to ablate the ABS sample, the washout time of 600 ms for Hg was obtained, and the spatial resolution of 106 μm was obtained. In addition, the potential quantitative analysis of this method has been studied, which provide the detection limits of ABS samples with 252 μg g−1 for 52Cr, 24 μg g−1 for 202Hg and 167 μg g−1 for 208Pb, respectively. The present imaging method has the unique capabilities of multi-elemental analysis, easy set-up and low consumption, which may serve as a complementary technology for current elemental imaging technology.