How can we increase aluminum response to determine 1-10 ppb level by ICP-MS?

Hi

The response for Al is very poor, please see the below calibration curve 0.25-10ppb,.He Mode, flow rate 5.0

what else can we do to increase response except reduce HNO3 concentration?

Thank you

Best regards,

Di Xu

Parents
  • What is your integration time in your method? Aluminum is a fairly small ion so helium will greatly impact the sensitivity. You can either use a longer integration time, lower the He flow (try 4.3-4.5) if other elements don't need so much Helium flow to achieve low background, or a combo of both. 

  • Hi Cheltajc, 

    Thank you for offering us these helpful suggestions. 

    1. We used 1.5 second integration time for the first run, which had low responses. 

    2. yesterday we run again by increasing the integration time to 2.5 seconds and lowing He flow rate to 4.4 . The responses are much better. 

    3. today we will run low matrix mode to see if we can increase more . 

    4. do you think we can increase integration time more than 2.5 seconds? because I don't know if the Counts will be stable enough if i increase integration time too much. 

Reply
  • Hi Cheltajc, 

    Thank you for offering us these helpful suggestions. 

    1. We used 1.5 second integration time for the first run, which had low responses. 

    2. yesterday we run again by increasing the integration time to 2.5 seconds and lowing He flow rate to 4.4 . The responses are much better. 

    3. today we will run low matrix mode to see if we can increase more . 

    4. do you think we can increase integration time more than 2.5 seconds? because I don't know if the Counts will be stable enough if i increase integration time too much. 

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