Selenium (Se) is an important element in environmental and agricultural studies and in human health, as it is an essential trace nutrient but is also toxic in excess. The role of certain chemical forms of Se is also the subject of signifi cant research into cancer prevention. ICP-MS is the analytical method of choice for both total and speciated Se measurements, but Se is diffi cult to quantify...

High sensitivity and low background noise are critical for the detection of small nanoparticles by ICP-MS. The signal generated by the ionization of a nanoparticle decreases as the cube root of the diameter. This means detection of very small particles, such as 10 nm Au particles (NIST 8011), requires ICP-MS instrumentation with significantly higher sensitivity than is required for the more typ...

A dilution method using MnO(2) for the manganese nodule standard, JMn1, has been newly adopted to obtain accurate calibration lines. Moreover, an internal standard correction method was applied to correct changes in the sample introduction efficiency for the prime purpose of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis. Using the dilution method and the cor...

Nanomaterials are increasingly used in food production and packaging, and validated methods for detection of nanoparticles (NPs) in foodstuffs need to be developed both for regulatory purposes and product development. Asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric detection (AF(4)-ICP-MS) was applied for quantitative analysis of silver nanoparticles ...

A commercially available direct mercury analyzer (DMA) based on sample combustion, pre-concentration by amalgamation with gold, and atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) was coupled to a sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). The combined system (DMA-ICP-MS) was optimized and evaluated for the determination of mercury in environmental samples using both external...

The advent of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) and their increased use has remarkably improved the performance of basic materials and consumer products, but has also increased the potential for ENP release into the environment. Technical procedures, more accurate and specific than those for routine chemical analysis, are needed for characterization and quantification of ENPs at environmentally r...

Percolation diffusion into long (11.5 cm) self-assembled, ordered mesoporous microfibres is studied using optical transmission and laser ablation inductive coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Optical transmission based diffusion studies reveal rapid penetration (<5 s, D > 80 μm²∙s-¹) of Rhodamine B with very little percolation of larger molecules such as zinc tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP) obs...

The glycoprotein purified from the mycelium extract of Tremella fuciformis was marked with iodine through the iodine substitution reaction. The content of iodine, which is indicative of the amount of the marked tremella glycoprotein (ITG), was detected with Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The method was found to be stable, sensitive, and accurate at detecting the content ...

Determination of the radionuclide iodine 129 using ICP-MS has been improved by the use of an Octopole Reaction System (ORS) ICP-MS, operated in oxygen cell mode. Oxygen reaction gas removes the background signal at m/z 129, which is due to the presence of Xe as an impurity in the Ar plasma gas and to the polyatomic ion IH2. NIST SRM standards with different 129I/127I ratios and at multiple conc...

The analysis of organic solvents by ICP-MS is challenging due to their high carbon content and volatility. Naphthas are an important class of organic liquids produced in the petrochemical industry, byproducts of the crude-oil refining process. Because they are organic based and have a variety of compositions, naphthas present a special challenge for ICP-MS analysis: the carbon causes polyatomic...