NOVEL LOW-POWER REDUCED PRESSURE INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA IONIZATION SOURCE FOR MASS-SPECTROMETRIC DETECTION OF ORGANOTIN SPECIES

A novel, low power, reduced pressure, helium inductively coupled plasm a source (LP/RP-He-ICP), operated at an estimated incident rf power of 12-15 W and pressures ranging from 0.37 to 1.2 mbar, was interfaced w ith mass spectrometry and coupled with gas chromatography for the sepa ration and detection of three organotin species, viz., tetraethyltin ( TET), trimethyl(phenyl)tin (TMPT) and tetrabutyltin (TBT), Limits of d etection las tin) for TET, TMPT and TBT were 0.12, 0,35, and 0.56 pg, respectively. Characteristic mass spectra matching established library spectra were obtained at low nanogram levels for TET,TMPT,TBT and tet ramethyltin (TMT), The potential of the source to provide tunable frag mentation was also investigated.