APPLICATION OF AN ELECTROSPRAY-INTERFACE AS A NEW NEBULIZER FOR INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY

An electrospray nebulizer was constructed for possible use as an interface for micro-HPLC and ICP-AES. The sample uptake rate was 10 mu l min(-1) To allow the transport of the aerosol to the plasma, the highly positively charged droplets produced by the electrospray were neutralized. To test the performance of the interface, methanol and methanol/water (8:2, v/v) solvent test solutions of metal-acetylacetonates were nebulized. Concentration detection limits obtained with this interface were worse than those obtained with thermospray or conventional pneumatic nebulizers. However, due to the low uptake rare, the absolute detection limits were considerably lower. No signal drift was observed when nebulizing the methanol test solution over 1 h. The extra-column peak broadening caused by the interface is not satisfactory and only acceptable when coupling to a micro-HPLC packed column with an inner diameter no smaller than 1 mm.