Evaluation of plasma cleaning efficiency for quartz raw materials using ICP–OES and LA–ICP–MS spectroscopy

We attempted to make a comparison of three methods for tissue platinum; atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The determination limits were 0.05 ng/mL on ICP-MS, 50 ng/mL on ICP-AES, and 200 ng/mL on AAS, and the recovery rates were 97.7 +/- 6.9% on ICP-MS, 69.0 +/- 3.0% on ICP-AES, and 102.4 +/- 4.0% on AAS, respectively. Platinum was detected by ICP-AES and ICP-MS in human vertebrae, but the level was higher by ICP-AES than by ICP-MS. In the mouse kidney treated with cisplatin, platinum was detected by ICP-MS, but not by ICP-AES. As cadmium gives the absorption peak close to platinum, cadmium was measured together with platinum by ICP-AES in the vertebrae. From these, ICP-MS is the most sensitive for measurement at tissue platinum. The sensitivity of ICP-AES looks worse for measuring the tissue platinum, and it is necessary to take care of the contaminant of metals, especially cadmium. AAS is not suitable for measurement of tissue platinum as in the vertebrae and kidneys, because platinum was not detectable by AAS.

This review describes developments in trace element determination using inductively coupled plasma‐atomic emission spectrometry (ICP‐AES) and inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) that were reported in 2006 and 2007. It focuses on the application of ICP techniques to geological and environmental samples; fundamental studies in ICP‐MS and ICP‐AES instrumentation have largely been ignored. New advances in ICP‐MS and ICP‐AES were incremental over this period, partly because both techniques are now well‐established. A continuing shift towards the hyphenation of low‐flow separation techniques has sparked activity in the development of appropriate low‐flow interfaces, and papers discussing interference removal also contribute significantly to the volume of research for both ICP‐AES and ICP‐MS. Whereas the majority of new ICP publications concerned advances in ICP‐MS analysis rather than ICP‐AES, development for ICP‐AES still occurs in almost all areas, particularly in sample introduction and hyphenated techniques.

The objectives of this study were to simplify sample preparation and validate mercury detection in soil and plant samples using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). A set of mercury contaminated and mercury free soil and plant samples were digested and analyzed by ICP-AES, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy (CVAAS). Results show that mercury measurements in soil and plant samples using ICP-AES were in agreement with those analyzed using ICP-MS and CVAAS. The concentrations of mercury in soils and plant tissues determined by ICP-AES were 92.2% and 90.5% of those determined by CVAAS and ICP-MS, respectively. Digestion of soil samples with 4 M HNO3 and direct measurement by ICP-AES without reduction of Hg2+ to Hg0 gave a reasonable and acceptable recovery (92%) for determining Hg in soils. We conclude that ICP-AES with optimized conditions (addition of gold chloride, extension of washing time, linear working range, and selection of wavelength – 194 nm) resulted in reliable detection of mercury in environmental samples.

This review describes significant developments in trace element determination using inductively coupled plasma‐atomic emission spectrometry (ICP‐AES) and inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) that were reported in 2004 and 2005. It focuses on the application of ICP techniques to geological and environmental samples; fundamental studies in ICP‐MS and ICP‐AES instrumentation are not included. The literature reviewed indicated that the majority of new publications concerned advances in ICP‐MS analysis rather than ICP‐AES. However, ICP‐AES developments are still being published, particularly in the areas of sample preconcentration and sample introduction. The trend in increasing publication of developments in hyphenated speciation techniques looks set to persist as knowledge of elemental speciation becomes critical for many environmental studies. Collision or reactions cells were the most reported technique for spectral interference removal in ICP‐MS, probably reflecting the growing adoption of cell instruments in laboratories during the last few years.

This review describes recent developments in trace element analysis using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). It aims to focus on the application of ICP techniques to geological and environmental samples. Therefore, fundamental studies in ICP-MS and ICP-AES instrumentation have largely been ignored. Whereas the majority of literature reviewed related to ICP-MS, indicating that ICP-MS is now the preferred technique for all geological analysis, there is still a steady development of ICP-AES to environmental applications. It is clear that true flexibility in elemental analysis can only be achieved by combining the advantages of both ICP-AES and ICP-MS. Two particular groups of elements (long-lived radionuclide and the platinum-group elements) stood out as warranting dedicated sections describing analytical developments these areas.

Comparison of elemental quantity by PIXE and ICP-MS and/or ICP-AES for NIST standards

Comparison of analytical performances of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry for trace analysis of bismuth and bismuth oxide

Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) were used for the determination of major and trace elements in sediment samples of the Bouregreg river (Morocco). The reliability of the results was checked, by using IAEA Soil-7 certified reference material. Results obtained by the three techniques were compared to control digestions efficiencies. A general good agreement was found between INAA and both ICP-MS and ICP-AES after alkaline fusion (ICPf). The ICP-MS technique used after acid attack (ICPa) was satisfactory for a few elements. A principal component analysis (PCA) has been used for analyzing the variability of concentrations, and defining the most influential sites with respect to the general variation trends. Three groups of elements could be distinguished. For these groups a normalization of concentrations to the central element concentration (that means Mn, Si or Al) is proposed.

A chitosan resin possessing the leucine moiety (leucine-type chitosan) was newly synthesized by using the chitosan cross-linked with ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDE) as a basic material. The adsorption behavior of trace amounts of metal ions on the leucine-type chitosan was systematically examined by packing it in a mini-column by ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). Molybdenum was adsorbed on the resin quantitatively and was easily eluted with 1 M nitric acid. The optimized pH range was from 1 to 5, and Mo was collected by the chelation mechanism and/or the anion-exchange mechanism. The method was applied to the determination of Mo in sea and river water samples. A pretreatment with the resin could remove the matrix components in seawater. Preconcentration by 100-fold was accomplished by a column treatment, which had a sufficient concentration to measure trace Mo in river water samples by ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry) and GFAAS (graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry): LODs with a 100-fold preconcentration by ICP-AES and GFAAS were 0.007 ng mL−1 and 0.009 ng mL−1, respectively, and the RSDs were both within 4.0%.

Double membrane desolvator for direct analysis of isopropyl alcohol in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

Comparing values of trace elements determined by external‐beam proton‐induced X‐ray emission (PIXE) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP‐AES) is important to find the provenience of raw materials of ancient nephrite artifacts, because most previous elemental characterizations of nephrite minerals were obtained by ICP‐AES, but PIXE presents the possibility of nondestructive analysis for largely and integrally ancient nephrite artifacts. In this work based on 12 nephrite minerals, it shows that the distribution of trace elements of nephrite samples both in PIXE and ICP‐AES data are generally consistent, although large differences exist in some elements. According to the trace elements, the two types of nephrite mineralization origins can be distinguished, determined by PIXE and ICP‐AES, respectively. Moreover, depending on the PIXE and ICP‐AES data, Sr can be regarded as fingerprint element of Xiaomeiling nephrite minerals, and the differentiation of Sr content between Xiaomeiling nephrite minerals and ancient nephrite artifacts from Liangzhu culture (3300–2300 bc) is clear evidence that the raw materials of the artifacts are not from Xiaomeiling deposit. The nephrite minerals from Wenchuan deposit can be distinguished from other samples because of their high values of Mn/Fe. Therefore, the PIXE can be used with ICP‐AES to judge mineralization mechanism and find fingerprint elements of raw materials of ancient nephrite artifacts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

There are several reasons that can explain why food analysis is a topic of strong interest for a large number of institutes around the world. Consumer demands have increased toward healthier and safer food products produced in environment‐friendly conditions. Food manufacturers and food distribution companies have to improve their quality control (QC) of raw materials, manufacturing processes, and end‐products to provide safe, healthy, and high‐quality products at reasonable price. Evaluation of element (e.g. essential and toxic) contents is an important part of nutrition and health claims made on foods. The methods best suited to meet this task are atomic spectroscopic methods such as atomic absorption, atomic emission, and elemental mass spectrometry (MS). Methods commonly used in the generation of food composition data include flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP/AES), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). FAAS and ICP/AES offer similar detection limits (DLs) (ng mL−1levels), whereas GFAAS and ICP/MS can provide sub‐ng mL−1detection capability. The choice of a method often depends on detection capability, but ease of use, speed of analysis, and cost must also be considered. ICP/AES, ICP/MS, and more recently GF/AAS offer the advantage of providing simultaneous multielement measurements, making them well suited for the analysis of large numbers of elements in food samples. If one or a few elements are to be determined, less expensive atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) methods might be more suitable.The most critical stage in the development of analytical methods is sample preparation. Samples can be prepared using numerous procedures, but the most useful for a wide range of analytes and sample matrices are based on wet ashing of the sample.In addition to total element determinations, speciation measurements are important to determine the exact chemical form of the element that is present in the sample. As important properties, such as the bioavailability of an element, are dependent on its chemical form (speciation), the development of reliable methods for identification and quantification of trace element species is critical. The most practical difficulty encountered in speciation is to preserve the integrity of the sample and the species of interest during sampling, storage, and sample preparation. Hyphenated techniques, such as the coupling of chromatographic separation and atomic spectroscopic detection, have proven useful for elemental speciation measurements.

Banded iron-formation recorded systematically the distribution of rare-earth elements (REEs) in the environment of ferruginous precipitation. Analyzing banded iron-formation therefore yields detailed information about both the source and the chemical conditions of deposition of REEs and iron. An international iron-formation reference sample would help to minimize the effect of analytical uncertainties (matrix effects, interelement interferences) and could be used as a basis for geochemical investigations of iron-formations. The four Canadian iron-formation samples FeR-1, FeR-2, FeR-3, and FeR-4 are suitable for use as multielement comparators in the analysis of banded iron-formation. A first compilation of analytical data has been presented by Abbey et al. (1983) but the number of published data is small, especially for the REEs. New data for some major, minor, and trace elements obtained by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) will be presented. The analytical data obtained by those independent methods agree very well and might improve the available data. For example it can be shown that for Eu, which is used very often as a geochemical probe, in the FeR-1 standard 3.4 þg/g might be the best value. The published value of 0.76 þg/g could not be verified by INAA or ICP-MS. Accuracy of the three methods is demonstrated by comparing the results of INAA, ICP-MS, and ICP-AES with the recommended values of the collaborative studies for the iron-formation sample IF-G and the Ailsa Craig granite AC-E.

Application of a microwave-based desolvation system for multi-elemental analysis of wine by inductively coupled plasma based techniques

Since food is the primary source of essential elements for humans, the accurate and precise analysis of food materials is critical. The methods best suited to meet this task are atomic spectroscopic methods such as atomic absorption, atomic emission, and elemental mass spectrometry (MS). Methods commonly used in the generation of food composition data include flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP/AES), and more recently, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS). FAAS and ICP/AES offer similar detection limits (DLs) (ng mL−1levels), whereas, GFAAS and ICP/MS can provide sub‐ng mL−1detection capability. The choice of a method often depends on detection capability, but ease of use, speed of analysis, and cost must be considered. ICP/AES and ICP/MS offer the advantage of providing simultaneous multielement measurements, making them well suited for the analysis of large numbers of elements in food samples. If one or a few elements are to be determined, less expensive atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) methods might be more suitable. The most critical stage in the development of analytical methods is sample preparation. Samples can be prepared using numerous procedures, but the most useful for a wide range of analytes and sample matrices are based on dry ashing or wet ashing of the sample. In addition to total element determinations, speciation measurements are important to determine the exact form of the element that is present in the sample. Since the bioavailability of an element is dependent on its chemical form (speciation), the development of reliable methods for identification and quantification of trace element species is critical. The coupling of chromatographic separation and atomic spectroscopic detection has proven useful for elemental speciation measurements.