ICP-MS Principle

What is ICP-MS?

ICP-MS pushes elemental analysis to the lowest detection limits available in routine laboratories. It uses the same high-temperature argon plasma as ICP-OES to atomise and ionise a sample, but instead of measuring emitted light it extracts the resulting ions and weighs them in a mass spectrometer — counting individual ions by their mass-to-charge ratio.

This makes ICP-MS the technique of choice for parts-per-trillion determinations and for isotope work in environmental, semiconductor, clinical, food-safety and high-purity materials laboratories.

How it works

The sample is nebulised into the plasma, where it is broken down into free ions. A sampling interface draws those ions out of the plasma through cones into a high-vacuum region. Ion optics focus the beam, and a mass analyser separates the ions by mass-to-charge ratio so a detector can count them one mass at a time.

Because each element's isotopes have distinct masses, the mass spectrum gives both elemental identity and isotopic information. Collision/reaction-cell technology removes spectral interferences so that trace analytes can be measured cleanly against the argon and matrix background.

• Detection limits down to parts per trillion (ppt)
• Isotopic as well as elemental information
• Very wide dynamic range in a single run
• Fast multi-element scanning across the mass range
• Interference control via collision/reaction cells

ICP-MS in the SPECTRO range

SPECTRO's ICP-MS instrumentation complements its ICP-OES line for laboratories that need the lowest possible detection limits. Nucleus can advise on where ICP-MS, ICP-OES or XRF is the most cost-effective fit for your analytical question and sample load.