What is elemental mass spectrometry?





      In elemental mass spectrometry, a technique used mostly for 
inorganic materials, the elemental composition of a sample is determined rather 
than the structural identities of its chemical constituents. Elemental mass 
spectrometry provides quantitative information about the concentrations of those 
elements.  The ion source used in elemental MS is ordinarily an 
atmospheric-pressure discharge such as the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) or 
a moderate-power device such as the glow-discharge source.  In either case, the 
decomposition of the sample into its constituent atoms and ionization of those 
atoms occurs in a specially designed source.  The resulting atomic-ion beam is 
then separated or sorted by a mass spectrometer and the signal as a function of 
m/z used to determine the sample composition.  With an ICP employed as an ion 
source, solution detection limits down to the part-per-trillion level are possible 
in favorable cases, while with the glow-discharge source, solid metal samples can 
be analyzed directly and their elemental composition determined over a 
million-fold range of concentrations.  Isotopic information is readily available, 
and samples can be analyzed very rapidly.



       
                     
                  
                    
Home