Laser ionization orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometry for simultaneous determination of nonmetallic elements in solids.
The simultaneous determination of nonmetallic elements in solid samples is difficult owing to their discrepant physical and chemical properties. We developed a high-irradiance laser ionization orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LI-O-TOFMS) system and applied it for the determination of nonmetallic elements in solids. Helium was used as the buffer gas at 250 Pa in the source chamber; the laser irradiance was about 7 x 10(10) W/cm(2). A series of artificial standards containing B, C, N, O, F, Si, P, S, Cl, As, Br, Se, I, and Te were used. Explicit spectra were obtained with only a little interference from gas species and doubly charged matrix ions. Standardless semiquantitative analysis could be accomplished with a novel sampling methodology to obtain near-uniform sensitivity coefficients for different elements. Limits of detection (LOD) at microgram per gram level and a dynamic range of 6 orders of magnitude were achieved for most nonmetallic elements.
Key Laboratory of Analytical Science, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
Lingfeng
L
Li
Bochao
B
Zhang
Rongfu
R
Huang
Wei
W
Hang
Jian
J
He
Benli
B
Huang