Rare earth elements determined in Antarctic ice by inductively coupled plasma--time of flight, quadrupole and sector field-mass spectrometry: An inter-comparison study.

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a suitable tool for multi-element analysis at low concentration levels. Rare earth element (REE) determinations in standard reference materials and small volumes of molten ice core samples from Antarctica have been performed with an ICP-time of flight-MS (ICP-TOF-MS) system. Recovery rates for REE in e.g. SPS-SW1 amounted to approximately 103%, and the relative standard deviations were 3.4% for replicate analysis at REE concentrations in the lower ngL(-1) range. Analyses of REE concentrations in Antarctic ice core samples showed that the ICP-TOF-MS technique meets the demands of restricted sample mass. The data obtained are in good agreement with ICP-Quadrupole-MS (ICP-Q-MS) and ICP-Sector Field-MS (ICP-SF-MS) results. The ICP-TOF-MS system determines accurately and precisely REE concentrations exceeding 5ngL(-1) while between 0.5 and 5ngL(-1) accuracy and precision are element dependent.