ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF TREE-RINGS BY LASER-ABLATION ICP-MS

Laser sampling inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry has been u sed for the quantitative determination of trace elements to characteri ze annual growth rings of trees. The elements studied are Mg, Al, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr, Cd, Ba, Tl, Pb, Bi and U. Cellulose mi xed with multielement standard solution pressed into pellets were used for the calibration. Using internal standardization with C-12 the pre cision is typically better than 10% relative standard deviation. The l imits of detection were limited by the purity of the cellulose. Analyt ical figures of merit and the analytical results are discussed in term s of environmental analysis.