Inorganic mass spectrometric methods for trace, ultratrace, isotope, and surface analysis

Inorganic mass spectrometric methods are widely used for multielemental det ermination at the trace and ultratrace level for isotope ratio measurements and surface analysis (depth profiling, imaging) in quite different materia ls (e.g. conducting, semiconducting, and nonconducting solid samples; techn ical, environmental, biological, geological, and water samples). The capabi lity of spark source mass spectrometry (SSMS), laser ionization mass spectr ometry (LIMS), glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS), laser ablation indu ctively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), secondary ion mass sp ectrometry (SIMS), sputtered neutral mass spectrometry (SNMS), and inductiv ely coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) have been applied as the most important mass spectrometric techniques with their multielemental capabili ty for the characterization of solid and aqueous samples. The detection lim its for the direct analysis of solid samples by inorganic solid mass spectr ometry were determined up to sub-ng g(-1) and for aqueous solutions by ICP- MS up to sub-pg L-l. This article discusses the most important inorganic ma ss spectrometric techniques and their application for quantitative determin ation of trace element, isotope ratio measurements, and in-surface analysis . (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.