Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer: A quantification Strategy Based on Two Reference Materials and Bulk Normalization as 100% ( wt )

Abstract

Quantification strategy as an essential issue for laser ablation ICP-MS plays an important role in the guarantee of analytical accuracy. In this study, the reference value uncertainties of current available glass reference materials (including NIST, MPI-DING and USGS) as well as the matrix effects were systematically evaluated. The results illustrated that NIST610 was better than other glass reference materials from aspect of reference value uncertainty. The matrix effects among NIST, MPI-DING and USGS glasses were insignificant under the experimental conditions. The quantification strategy based on two reference materials (NIST610 and StHs6/80-G) and bulk normalization as 100 % (wt) was proposed to reduce the LA-ICP-MS generated transient signals, which eliminates the deficiencies encountered with the quantification strategy using single reference material, such as the extreme low content or large uncertainty of some elements. The comparison of ML3B-G results obtained from three quantification strategies (single reference material NIST610, single reference material StHs6/80-G and two reference materials) illustrated that the proposed strategy improved the analytical accuracy. Three reference materials including BCR-2G, CGSG-2 and KL-2G were quantified using the proposed strategy, and almost all data matched well with reference values. The data reported in this study could supplement the reference value database for BCR-2G, CGSG-2 and KL2-G.