SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS-SPECTROMETRY WITH SAMPLE INTRODUCTION BY TUNGSTEN FURNACE ELECTROTHERMAL VAPORIZATION

The performance of an inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer with an electrothermal vaporizer (ETV) has been investigated as a function of several parameters associated with ETV operation. A tungsten ribbon furnace was used as the ETV device. To prevent oxidation of the furnace material, argon with a small amount of added hydrogen was supplied as the carrier gas. By lowering the vaporization temperature, the greatest signals were obtained at higher flow rates of the carrier gas. The amount of tungsten evaporated from the furnace material was low enough to avoid matrix effects. Water was removed by drying at 100°C for 65 s to reduce the formation of ArO, and consequently the detection limit of Fe was improved to 0.3 pg. The detection limits for Co and Pb were 0.02 and 0.008 pg, respectively. © 1990.