ABSTRACT
The majority of current ICP-MS applications involve the analysis of liquid samples. Even though the technique has been adapted over the years to handle solids and slurries, it was developed in the early 1980s primarily to analyze solutions. There are many different ways of introducing a liquid into an ICP mass spectrometer, but they all basically achieve the same result, which is to generate a fine aerosol of the sample so that it can be efficiently ionized in the plasma discharge. The sample introduction area has been called the Achilles’ heel of ICP-MS, because it is considered the weakest component of the instrument. Only about 2% of the sample finds its way into the plasma, depending on the matrix and method of introducing the sample.1 Although there has recently been significant innovation in this area, particularly in instrumentspecific components custom-built by third-party vendors, the fundamental design of a traditional ICP-MS sample introduction system has not dramatically changed since the technique was first introduced in 1983.
