Evaluation of a low sample consumption, high-efficiency nebulizer for elemental analysis of biological samples using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The applications of a pneumatically driven high-efficiency nebulizer (HEN), operated at a solution uptake rate of 85 mu l min(-1), are reported for the analysis of digested biological standard reference materials using argon ICP-MS. Laser Fraunhofer diffraction also is used to acquire droplet-size distributions for the tertiary aerosol from the HEN. Three Standard Reference Materials (SRM 1566 Oyster Tissue, 1577a Bovine Liver and 1571 Orchard Leaves, National Institute of Standards and Technology) are microwave/nitric acid digested and analysed by external calibration with four internal standards. Results for the measurement of 10 elements in the SRMs are presented. In general, good agreement is obtained between the measured and certified values. The droplet-size distributions of the tertiary aerosol of biological materials tested are nearly identical to that of the digestion blank solution consisting of 10% HNO3.