Ultra-Trace Analysis of Beryllium in Water and Industrial Hygiene Samples by ICP-MS Application

Exposure to airborne beryllium can lead to adverse health effects in humans. Consequently, many countries have legislation in place to ensure the health and safety of workers and the wider environment. Because even very low concentrations of Be in air constitute a toxic threat to health, analytical methodology that is capable of extremely high-sensitivity measurement is required. Although trace-level analysis of the element is difficult by some ICP-MS instrumentation, the Agilent 7500ce ICPMS can achieve Be detection limits in the sub-ppt range directly in water and in acid digests of air filters under routine analytical conditions. Long-term precision and accuracy data recorded over 8 hours of continuous analysis of a highly diluted certified reference material (NIST 1640) is presented. Recoveries were greater than 97% and precision was in the order of 1 to 2%. Comparable performance was obtained when measuring spiked membrane filters, indicating that the method is applicable to the ultra-trace analysis of Be in air samples collected on filters.