Analysis of stainless steels by direct current helium glow discharge mass spectrometry

The analysis of stainless steel by means of the direct current helium glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS) has been studied, Disk samples were specular grinding with alumina paste (1 mum) and preliminary exposed to glow discharge for 7.2 ks in the discharge cell. Ion beam intensities of discharge gas ionic species were measured as a function of discharged voltage (500-2000 V). The generation of excessive diatomic molecule ion (He-2(+)) was not found at a range of 1250-2000 V Optimum glow discharge conditions were examined and we adjusted the discharge voltage and current to 1000 V and 3 mA, respectively. The relative sensitivity factors (RSFX,Fe; Fe=1) for fifteen analytes obtained using the JSS CRMs, NIST and IARM SRMs were almost less than 1. The analytical results of a practical sample, stainless steel, showed good agreement with results obtained by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry based on the fundamental parameter method and by the chemical analysis.