IS LASER-ABLATION-ICP-MS AN ALTERNATIVE TO SOLUTION ANALYSIS OF SOLIDSAMPLES

The basic obstacles for the general use of laser-ablation(LA)-ICP-MS i n analytical laboratories an connected with its reproducibility and ca libration. A mathematical relation deduced from the correlation functi on of the analytical signals allows the estimation of the number of cr aters needed for representative analyses. The procedure was applied to different samples such as manganese crusts and soils. The ion intensi ties of the major elements in the manganese crusts and nodules were us ed as internal standards, improving relative standard deviations by fa ctors between 2 and 3. Selected samples of wood and manganese crusts w ere analyzed by LA-ICP-MS and the results compared with those obtained by solution ICP-MS. The agreement of the values is within the 95% con fidence limits. Powdered reference materials and, in the case of wood analysis, cellulose doped with standard solutions were used for the ca libration.