ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors take a detailed look at this very powerful mass separation device, which has found its niche in solving challenging application problems that require excellent detection capability, exceptional resolving power, and very high precision. Even though magnetic sector technology was the most common mass separation device for the analysis of inorganic compounds using traditional ion sources, it lost out to quadrupole technology when inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was first developed in the early 1980s. Initially, this technology was found to be unsuitable as a separation device for an ICP because of the high voltage required to accelerate the ions into the mass analyzer. For this reason, basic changes had to be made to the ion acceleration mechanism for magnetic sector technology to be successfully used as a separation device for ICP-MS.
