Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry Using Nebulizers with Widely Different Sample Consumption Rates

Abstract

A pneumatic, high-efficiency nebulizer (HEN), consuming only 50 mL of sample per minute, produced detection limits for most lines that were within a factor of 3 of those exhibited by commonly used pneumatic nebulizers that use 1.0 mL of sample per minute. Detection limits were within a factor of 8 for all lines observed, despite the 20 times smaller sample consumption rate for the HEN compared to commonly used nebulizers. The aerosol properties were measured and related to the observed vertical emission profiles, Ar emission intensities, and ion to atom emission intensity ratios. The aerosol properties and plasma excitation conditions were used to understand the origins

Sample introduction systems for the analysis of liquid microsamples by ICP-AES and ICP-MS

“…Olesik et al [27] claimed that the HEN operated at a 50 µl/min liquid flow rate afforded limits of detection similar to those measured for a conventional pneumatic concentric nebulizer operated at a 1 ml/min sample flow rate. Further measurements of the efficiency of the analyte transport towards the plasma (ε n ) indicated that for the HEN this parameter took a value close to 60% at 10 µl/min, whereas it dropped down to 8% at 120 µl/min [28,29].…”

“…For the HEN operated at 50 µl/min, the MgII/MgI ratio was 7.8, whereas in the case of the pneumatic concentric nebulizer, the magnesium ratio was 4.8 at 1 ml/min. Accordingly, the argon emission intensity was also higher at low rather than at high liquid flow rates [27]. This trend cannot be considered as a rule, because if the solvent mass reaching the plasma is too low, its thermal conductivity decreases, thus leading to a poor energy transfer to the sample and, therefore, to a deterioration of the thermal characteristics of the plasma [34].…”

“…Olesik et al [27] observed that the thermal conditions of the plasma were not deteriorated as the liquid flow rate decreased. Indeed, the plasma had a higher excitation capability when operating at low liquid flow rates with a HEN than in the case of a conventional pneumatic concentric nebulizer operated at conventional flow rates.…”

Real-time internal standardization with an axially-viewed inductively coupled plasma for optical emission spectrometry

“…A possible explanation for the observed effects involves consideration of the fact that the sample is introduced to the ICP as a suspension of liquid aerosol droplets [31][32][33][34]. Fluctuations in the aerosol density give rise to the multiplicative flicker noise observed in the signals [l,3,31-33].…”

Determination of plutonium isotopes in waters and environmental solids: A review

“…However, in order to reduce the sample consumption and consequently minimize instrumental radioactivity contamination and reduce waste generation, high efficiency micronebulization might be hyphenated with ICP-MS for precise and accurate determination of ultra trace radionuclides as well as their isotopic ratios. Various low-consumption nebulisers, such as the microconcentric nebulizer (MCN) [102,103], the high efficiency nebulizer (HEN) [104][105][106][107][108][109], the direct injection nebulizer (DIN) [110][111][112], oscillating capillary nebulizer (OCN) [113,114] by using similar operation conditions for SF-ICP-MS but without application of Ar-N 2 mixed gas plasma [71]. However, the 241 Pu results had relatively large uncertainty if the intensity of signals is rather low.…”