MICROCONCENTRIC NEBULIZER FOR THE ANALYSIS OF SMALL SAMPLE VOLUMES BYINDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-MASS SPECTROMETRY

A microconcentric nebuliser was evaluated for the analysis of small vo lumes of sample. An optimum set of conditions was obtained for a range of analytes by optimisation of the nebuliser gas flow rate. The techn ique was evaluated by accurate analysis of reference material NIES No. 5 using just 100 mu l of sample. Recoveries between 95 and 106% were obtained for all the elements determined. The technique was then appli ed to the analysis of biological samples and to the analysis of a pept ide, with multi-element analysis on less than 100 mu l of sample. Acce ptable reproducibility and precision were obtained for both sample typ es. Recoveries between 95 and 118% were obtained for the biological sa mples and between 72 and 104% for the peptide samples. The microconcen tric nebuliser permits a significant decrease in sample volume for mul ti-element analysis without loss of accuracy.