ICMPS Reading of AMD Water Samples
Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) is an analytical method used to figure out which trace elements are present in a sample. It generally uses liquid samples which are diluted to some degree (in our case 100x diluted) and are pumped into the machine where they are vaporized into a fine mist. Once the vapor sprays into the machine it meets with an ionized argon plasma. This plasma ionizes the elements present in the sample and then these ions are sent through a series of tiny lenses. These lenses focus the sample into a single beam and eliminate other particles that could cause background noise. Once the ion stream has passed through the lenses it will reach the quadrupole mass analyzer. A quadrupole analyzer uses four parallel cylindrical rods that act as electrodes. The ions are accelerated into space between the rods. The machine will be set to search for one type of ion at a time (for example iron ions) which has a different mass to charge (m/z) ratio than all other ions. All of the ions except the ones with the correct m/z value for the particular element the machine is selecting for will strike the rods and become neutral. The ones that have the correct m/z ratio will be able to pass through the quadrupole to the detector. This detector will count how many times the ions strike per second to see how much of a particular ion is present. After it finishes counting one type of ion it will start selecting for a different ion and continue counting up all of the different elements in the sample. The data that the machine spits out will be in counts per second but we would like to know the concentration so the data will be compared with samples of known concentration of the analytes of interest. Once the concentration of each element in the sample has been determined, the data is ready!
Wilschefski, Scott C, and Matthew R Baxter. “Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: Introduction to Analytical Aspects.” The Clinical biochemist. Reviews vol. 40,3 (2019): 115-133. doi:10.33176/AACB-19-00024
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