HYDRAULIC HIGH-PRESSURE NEBULIZATION - APPLICATION OF A NEW NEBULIZATION SYSTEM FOR INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Hydraulic high pressure nebulization (HHPN) has been introduced primarily for atomic emission and absorption spectrometry. We have applied this promising nebulization technique for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with corresponding optimization of the system. A very fine aerosol is produced by the HHPN system with a nozzle of 10-mu-m diameter in front of an impact bead contained in a spray chamber of reduced size. A desolvation system was applied in order to reduce the high water loading of the aerosol. A nebulization efficiency of 30% was measured at the exit of the spray chamber. In comparison to conventional pneumatic nebulization, an intensity gain by a factor of 31, on average, was observed with HHPN for 22 elements out of 23 under investigation, boron being the only exception. A considerable reduction of interferent equivalent concentrations was observed for some important interferences. The system was operated in a continuous mode and in an injection mode,