Electrothermal vaporization coupled with inductively coupled plasma array-detector mass spectrometry for the multielement analysis of Al2O3 ceramic powders

January 1, 2006

Journal Article

Electrothermal vaporization coupled with inductively coupled plasma array-detector mass spectrometry for the multielement analysis of Al2O3 ceramic powders

Abstract

An electrothermal vaporization (ETV) system useful for the analysis of solutions and slurries has been coupled with a sector-field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) equipped with an array detector. The ability of this instrument to record the transient signals produced in ETV-ICP-MS is demonstrated. Detection limits for Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Ga are in the range of 4-60 pg µL-1 for aqueous solutions and in the low µg g-1 range for the analysis of 10 mg mL-1 slurries of Al2O3 powders. The dynamic ranges measured for Fe, Cu and Ga spanned 3-5 orders of magnitude when the detector was operated in the low-gain mode and appear to be limited by the ETV system. Trace amounts of Fe, Cu and Ga could be directly determined in Al2O3 powders at the 2-270 µg g-1 level without the use of thermochemical reagents. The results well agree with literature values for Fe, whereas deviations of 30-50% at the 2-90 µg g-1 level for Cu and Ga were found.

Revised: March 28, 2006 | Published: January 1, 2006

Citation

Peschel B.U., F.J. Andrade, W.C. Wetzel, G.D. Schilling, G.M. Hieftje, J. Broekaert, and R. Sperline, et al. 2006. Electrothermal vaporization coupled with inductively coupled plasma array-detector mass spectrometry for the multielement analysis of Al2O3 ceramic powders. Spectrochimica Acta. Part B, Atomic Spectroscopy 61, no. 1:42-49. PNNL-SA-46498.