Mixed gas helium/argon low-power/reduced-pressure ICP as a tunable ionization source for the mass spectrometric detection of organotin compounds

Quantitative and qualitative mass spectrometric results have been obtained for organotin compounds introduced into a mixed gas He/Ar low-power/reduced -pressure (LP/RP) inductively coupled plasma (ICP). Molecular fragmentation of 10 mg kg(-1) of tetraethyltin (TET), introduced by gas chromatography ( GC), with respect to pressure and mixed gas composition of the LP/RP-ICP wa s observed. Detection limits for the organotin compounds introduced into an LP/RP-He/Sr ICP at the pressure producing the optimum analyte signal were in the low picogram range. The source demonstrated ''tunable" fragmentation with variation in the helium/argon mixed gas ratio. In addition, tunable f ragmentation with pressure variations similar to that achieved previously w ith helium radio-frequency glow discharge (He-rf-GD) was observed with the LP/RP-He ICP.