FEASIBILITY OF ONLINE ION-EXCHANGE INTERFACED TO AN INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETER (ICP-MS)

After a series of preliminary experiments to examine the problems invo lved with interfacing an on-line ion exchange system with an inductive ly coupled plasma mass spectrometer, a sixty second sample load time w as found to provide adequate sensitivity at the 0.1 ng . ml-1 level. I nstrumental response was found to vary linearly with analyte concentra tion over the range of concentrations required for the analysis of rea l, environmentally important, samples. By careful optimisation of the interfaced system, detection limits of less than 0.5 ng . ml-1 were pr oduced for Al, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb in an aqueous sol ution containing 3% sodium chloride as a matrix.