ABSTRACT
As a result of the widespread use and acceptability of ICP-MS, the cost of commercial instrumentation has dramatically fallen over the past 25 years. When the technique was first introduced, $250,000 was a fairly typical amount to spend, whereas today one can purchase a quadrupole or time-of-flight (TOF) system for under $150,000. Although it can cost a great deal more to invest in magnetic sector technology or a “triple quadrupole” collision/reaction cell instrument, most laboratories that are looking to invest in the technique should be able to justify the purchase of an instrument without price being a major concern. One of the benefits of this kind of price erosion is that, slowly but surely, the atomic absorption (AA) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) user communities are being attracted to ICP-MS, and as a result, the technique is being used in more and more diverse application areas. Figure 19.1 shows a percentage breakdown of the major market segments being addressed by ICP-MS on a worldwide basis. Three points should be emphasized here. First, these data can be significantly different on a geographical or regional basis, because of factors such as a country’s commitment (or lack of it) to environmental concerns or the size of a region’s electronics or nuclear industry, for example. Second, many laboratories carry out more than one type of application, and as a result can be represented in more than one market segment. Finally, the research market segment
has been listed as a separate category to show the instruments that are being used in an academic environment or for nonroutine applications. However, many universities, federal organizations, or corporate research and development groups might be using their instrumentation for research purposes in a particular application segment. For these reasons, these data should only be considered an approximation for comparison purposes.
