ROLE OF SLURRY NEBULIZATION FOR THE ANALYSIS OF GEOLOGICAL SAMPLES BY INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA SPECTROMETRY

Slurry nebulisation is a method of introducing solid samples into an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for geochemical analysis. It offers many of the advantages of both solution and direct solids analysis. The value of slurry nebulisation lies principally in the range of potentially refractory materials which can be analysed, along with an ability to determine volatile elements which may be lost during sample digestion procedures. Sample preparation can be straightforward and of modest cost. The drawbacks of this type of sample introduction are the reduced precisions obtained in both ICP-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and ICP-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) relative to those achievable using solution nebulisation. However, for a number of analytical applications, slurry nebulisation has considerable potential as a means of sample introduction.