ABSTRACT
As a result of the widespread use and acceptability of ICP-MS, the cost of commercial instrumentation has dramatically fallen over the past 20 years. When the technique was first introduced, $250,000 was a fairly typical amount to spend, whereas today, you can purchase a system for less than $150,000. Although it can cost a great deal to invest in magnetic sector technology or a quadrupole instrument fitted with a collision/reaction cell, most laboratories that are looking to invest in the technique should be able to justify the purchase of an instrument based without price being a major concern. One of the benefits of this kind of price erosion is that slowly but surely, the AA and ICP-OES user community are being attracted to ICP-MS, and, as a result, the technique is being used in more and more diverse application areas. Figure 18.1 shows a percentage breakdown of the major market segments being addressed by ICP-MS on a worldwide basis. Two points should be emphasized here. First, these data can be significantly different on a geographical basis because of factors like a country’s commitment (or lack of it) to environmental concerns or the size of a region’s electronics or nuclear industry, for example. Secondly, many laboratories carry out more than one type of application and, as a result, can be represented in more than one a market segment. For these reasons, these data should only be considered an approximation for comparison purposes.
