A technique involving the coupling of laser ablation and inductively c
oupled plasma mass spectrometer has been used for semi-quantitative an
alysis of glasses without sample dissolution. The characteristic featu
res of this technique is low detection limit and accuracy between a fe
w % up to 20%. An NIST glass standard (SRM 612) was dissolved and then
analysed by ICP-MS in semi-quantitative mode. The results were in clo
se agreement with the certified values for elements such as Mn, Sr, Y,
Ti ...