Attenuation of Polyatomic Ion Interferences in Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry by Gas-Phase Collisions

Abstract

A double quadrupole arrangement to remove polyatomic ions by collisions with an added target gas has been evaluated. The ions Ar2+, ArO+, and ArN+ were attenuated by factors of 50–400 to count rates of ≤100 counts s−1. Fifty to seventy percent of the analyte ions were retained. Removal of polyatomic ions and retention of analyte ions were favored by low-energy collisions with Xe or CH4 rather than typical target gases like N2 or Ar. Products of ion-molecule reactions between background ions and target gas in the first quadrupole could be observed.

État de l'art et derniers développements en ICP-MS

“…Il a en effet été suggéré, à la fin des années 80, que ce genre de dispositif pouvait être un moyen efficace, flexible et relativement bon marché de résoudre les interférences spectrales (13,14 …”

Dynamic Reaction Cell ICPMS for Trace Metal Analysis of Semiconductor Materials

“…Collision cells, pioneered in the late 1980s, were the next major development to reduce polyatomic spectral interferences and improve the performance of quadrupole ICPMS (6). The first commercially available collision cell for ICPMS, based on hexapole technology, was originally developed to study organic molecules with tandem MS because the more collision-induced product species that were generated, the better the chance of identifying the structure of the parent molecule (7 ).…”

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer with axial field in a quadrupole reaction cell

“…It can be enacted postcell [36] or, as discussed in the previous section, in-cell by providing a continuous retarding axial field. We investigated both methods for suppression of the IH 2 ϩ interference.…”