Nebulization and analysis characteristics of a particle beam hollow cathode glow discharge atomic emission spectrometry system

A detailed evaluation of the nebulization characteristics of a particle beam/hollow cathode glow discharge atomic emission spectrometry system is described, The optimization of sample introduction and particle beam interface operation was further evaluated for applications in elemental analysis for a number of transition metals, A high efficiency thermoconcentric nebulizer, coupled to a particle beam LC-MS interface, was employed to introduce analyte particles into a heated hollow cathode glow discharge source in either flow injection or continuous flow mode, The measurement of pressure and temperature in the desolvation chamber, along with the addition of a helium supplement gas, provides an insight into the sample/particle transport mechanism, The effects of capillary size (inner diameter) and solvent composition (methanol-water volume ratio) at various liquid Bow rates were studied to evaluate optimum sample introduction conditions, Calibration graphs of Cu, Pb, Fe and Mg in the range 50 ppb-10 ppm show promising linearity under optimized conditions, The variability of multiple injections at a single concentration is less than 15% RSD over this concentration range, The limits of detection for Cu, Pb, Fe and Mg are 12, 25, 20 and 15 ppb, respectively, for 200 mu l injection volumes.