MS INTERVIEW - AN ELEMENTAL MASS-SPECTROMETRY SPECTRAL INTERFERENCE DATA-BASE

A graphically-oriented data base of spectral interferences that occur in inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and glow discharge-mass spectrometry has been developed. The program is called "MS InterView" and runs on a Macintosh computer. The program allows one to specify which technique (ICP or GD) the various interferences will be presented for, and for the case of the ICP, the acid matrix background. Based on these parameters the program provides a listing of interferences broken down into the following categories: Isobarics. Oxides, Doubly Charged Species, Background Dependent, and Matrix Dependent. For the glow discharge caw, there are two additional categories: Argides and Dimers. Interference information is provided for all masses of all elements and is easily accessed via mouse operations from a periodic table window and element mass spectral windows. The program is expandable to include other ion sources and interferences can be added or deleted as required by the user. Finally, the program also includes a small library of typical background spectra that can be displayed and manipulated. This article is an electronic publication in Spectrochimica Acta Electronica (SAE), the electronic section of Spectrochimica Acta B (SAB). The hardcopy text is accompanied by a disk containing the program MS InterView, a manual, a reference list and a bar graph format mass spectral library of the elements.