ICP-MS: It’s Time for an Upgrade

What is high resolution?

Sometimes, samples at trace level produce strong matrix interferences. These interferences muddy the waters, so to speak, obscuring your analyte of interest, and you cannot learn anything from an analyte you cannot see. You need to eliminate the interferences, but cleaning up the spectra is time-consuming.

Imagine you’re working with a sample of drinking water. Your job is to test for the presence of arsenic, but interference in the sample is causing traditional methods to fail.

High Resolution ICP-MS eliminates interferences. It also eliminates long sample preps, tedious method developments, and complex analyses. You can run your lab unencumbered, and get clear results fast.

How does it work?

High Resolution ICP-MS separates your analyte of interest from the unwanted molecules. This is a universal method used in hundreds of labs, and it allows us to get a clearer picture of your analyte and to better screen interferences to keep your spectra spotless.

The Thermo Scientific Element Series don’t rely on reactive gases. And they run using a single method for a huge range of applications, allowing ultimate flexibility and seamless integration. Whether you’re in geosciences, material sciences, semiconductor production, or any number of other fields, The Thermo Scientific Element Series systems adapt to your needs.

Suitable applications

High Resolution ICP-MS systems cover the mg/L to sub pg/L concentration range€”making them especially suitable for semiconductor, geological and material science laboratories.

The semiconductor industry benefits from high resolution and high selectivity. HR-ICP-MS offers direct elemental analysis of nearly every element in the periodic table, including phosphorous and sulfur. It shows ultra-pure water, mineral acids, inorganic chemicals, organic solvents, silanes and VPD samples with minor method development effort. You can rapidly switch between cold and hot plasma operation, having less than 0.1 ng·L-1 detection limits for a majority of elements. Leave out the sample preparation other than dilution. This robust technology is an equally effective tool for top-end research and 24/7 production control.

In geosciences you will enjoy the flat top peaks for highest precision. HR-ICP-MS instruments are excellent tools for a wide range of isotopic analyses: Superior sensitivity, low noise, and a stable signal combined with good matrix tolerance. And the Jet Interface option for the highest sensitivity provides sub ppq detection limits and high precision isotope ratios at <10 ng·L-1 concentrations. HR-ICP-MS can measure precise isotope ratios, even when one isotope is of extremely low abundance, by employing its Faraday detector to extend its linear dynamic measurement range by three orders of magnitude.

For material science HR-ICP-MS provides greater simplicity for complex challenges. Because of its high sensitivity and ability to reliably resolve spectral interferences even in heavy solvent gradients, the Element series ICP-MS are ideally suited for speciation analysis. You can couple HPLC and UHPLC (for As, Se, Cr, P, S speciation), GC with heated transfer line (for speciation of Sn, Hg, Pb), or IC (for As speciation).

Have a look at the latest application notes at www.thermofisher.com/hr-icp-ms.