Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry: Analytical assessment of the technique at the beginning of the 90's

Analytical atomic spectrometry going into the next millennium: photons or ions, atoms or molecules?

“…ICP-OES appears to have become the most popular routine technique for inorganic multielemental analysis of dissolved samples, 9 even if initial investment and subsequent running expenses are much higher than those needed for AAS. The 1998 worldwide market size for ICP-OES amounted to around 200 millions US dollars and a steady increase of that market for the next three years is foreseen.…”

“…Of course, other developments in ICP-OES are under scrutiny, apart from exploitation of multichannel detectors, 16 and I would stress: advantages of axial rather than lateral viewing of the plasma, 19 development of convenient softwares for fast semiquantitative analysis, 20 boosting of basic studies to describe adequately ICP excitation mechanisms and diagnostic tools, 21 advanced sample introduction systems into plasmas (e.g., lasers, 22 sparks, 11 volatile species generation 23 ), the use of organized media to improve atomic spectroscopic methods 24 and others. However, ICP-OES became a mature technique a decade ago 9 and is now the benchmark tool for inorganic multielemental analysis. AAS techniques are very well established by now.…”