Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS): a versatile tool

Abstract

Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) mass spectrometry (MS) is routinely used in many diverse research fields such as earth, environmental, life and forensic sciences and in food, material, chemical, semiconductor and nuclear industries. The high ion density and the high temperature in a plasma provide an ideal atomizer and element ionizer for all types of samples and matrices introduced by a variety of specialized devices. Outstanding properties such as high sensitivity (ppt-ppq), relative salt tolerance, compound-independent element response and highest quantitation accuracy lead to the unchallenged performance of ICP MS in efficiently detecting, identifying and reliably quantifying trace elements. The increasing availability of relevant reference compounds and high separation selectivity extend the molecular identification capability of ICP MS hyphenated to species-specific separation techniques. While molecular ion source MS is specialized in determining the structure of unknown molecules, ICP MS is an efficient and highly sensitive tool for target-element orientated discoveries of relevant and unknown compounds. This specialfeature, tutorial article presents the principle and advantages of ICP MS, highlighting these using examples from recently published investigations.

Salivary metals, age, and gender correlate with cultivable oral Candida carriage levels

“…Previous data describing normal metal levels in healthy adults are limited and scattered, and these studies were hampered by the fact that salivary copper, nickel, iron, and manganese are generally below the limit of detection by even the most sensitive spectro-analytical methods [1,2] including atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) or inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Therefore, we examined metal levels in the saliva of healthy adults using ICP-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) that is capable of detecting part per trillion (ppt) concentrations of these elements [9]. …”

信鸽瓶状囊耳石中磁性元素的电感耦合等离子体质谱分析

“…ICP-MS is one of the powerful tools for detections of trace elements and is superior to SR-XRF and energy dispersive microanalysis in detection sensitivity (at part per trillion level), elements distinguishing capacity and dynamic ranges. ICP-MS can be applied for precise isotopic analysis [18,19] and has become a preferred method for identifications of trace elements, thus it is widely used in the field of life sciences [18][19][20] . ICP-MS analysis for element ingredients of lagenal otoliths provides us with essential knowledge in Adult homing pigeons were deeply anaesthetized with 20% urethane and decapitated.…”

Articulating Spacers Used in Two-stage Revision of Infected Hip and Knee Prostheses Abrade with Time

“…Samples are decomposed to neutral elements in a hightemperature argon plasma, which has been produced by the effect of high-frequency electromagnetic fields, and after accelerating the elements through an electrical field, they are analyzed on the basis of their mass-to-charge ratios. The slightest trace of elements can be identified and quantified in this way [2,30,40]. Samples of spacer membrane with a wet weight of approximately 0.7 g were ultrasonically nebulized in nitric acid before being introduced into the ELAN DRC II apparatus in the TotalQuant mode.…”