Sector field mass spectrometers in ICP-MS

A new generation of sector field mass spectrometers, with improved analytic al figures of merit at even lower prices, is commercially available, giving a strong impetus to the development of inductively coupled plasma mass spe ctrometry (ICP-MS) sector field instrument applications in the analytical c ommunity. It is the aim of this paper to give an overview of these instrume nts, to introduce some basic concepts, to discuss their peculiarities and p erformance, and to present some selected examples of analytical application s to demonstrate the 'state of the art'. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.