The use of a halocarbon/argon atmosphere in the sampling manifold of a graphite rod electrothermal vaporization device employed for the introduction of samples into a high-frequency, inductively coupled argon plasma source for optical emission spectroscopy is shown to permit sensitive determination of elements such as boron, molybdenum, zirconium, chromium, and tungsten which form refractory oxides or carbides which limit attainable sensitivity when an argon atmosphere alone is employed. Typical improvements in the detection limits obtained with this technique are between one and two orders of magnitude, so that subnanogram amounts of these elements may be detected; linear dynamic concentration ranges of four orders of magnitude have been obtained with the procedure employed. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
