Solution nebulization into a low-pressure helium inductively coupled plasma with mass spectrometric detection

An ultrasonic nebulizer and glass frit nebulizer (T. M. Castillano, N. P. Vela, W. C. Story and J. A. Caruso, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 1992, 7, 807) were used to investigate the feasibility of liquid sample analysis via solution nebulization by low-pressure He ICP-MS, In these experiments, the importance of reduced solvent loading to improve signal stability when working with He plasmas is demonstrated, Preliminary figures of merit were calculated and resulted in two orders of magnitude linear dynamic range with detection limits in the low ppb region, This work also illustrates a potential advantage of alternate plasma sources over atmospheric Ar ICP which is the detection of elements (i.e., Se) that are otherwise difficult to detect using an atmospheric Ar ICP due to the presence of high mass polyatomic interferences.