Laser ablation LA-ICP

Nevertheless, ICP-MS has proven to be an integral analytical technique for the analysis of glaze recipes when coupled with laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS) 12, 18-20). Because the laser only ablates the surface of ceramics, data is generated for glazes and paints alone. This allows the researcher to focus on various glaze and paint colors on a single ceramic surface, which would not be possible using traditional bulk analytical techniques such as INAA and MD-ICP-MS. 

Laser ablation. LA/ICP-MS is highly versatile and can analyze any kind of solid material. Compared with conventional ICP-MS, the main advantages of this technique are the fast preparation of solid samples without time-consuming dissolution processes, the certainty of a quantitative analysis, and the reduction of potential contaminations during sample preparation (Longerich etal., 1993 Jarvis and Williams, 1993). 

Several recent studies have used quadrupole ICP-MS in combination with laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS), liquid chromatography-ICP-MS, and/or high-resolution and multi-collector ICP-MS. Despite the fact that the advantages of high sensitivity of mass spec-trometric techniques are mostly applicable to the analysis of terrestrial samples simultaneously, scanning electron microscopy demonstrates the performance characteristics of inclusions in minerals and generally agrees well with published values. 

A direct determination of plutonium isotopes in soils and sediments was proposed by Boulyga et al. (2004) by Laser Ablation (LA)-ICP-MS. To minimize uranium hydride formation and peak tailing of on mass/charge = 239, LA-ICP-MS measurements were carried... 

The use of laser ablation (LA)-ICP-MS is of particular interest for this type of application, because the analysis of small particles that have been transported in aerosol form provides a powerful method for tracking down nuclear activities. Therefore, the analysis of so-called hot particles (originating from nuclear weapons tests, accidental releases, or unauthorized activities) is of great importance. 

Equipped with laser ablation (LA), ICP-MS can be directly accessed to analytes in solids matrices. Protein identification and semi-quantification directly from a one-dimensional (ID) or 2D gel combined with LA-ICP-MS is used to determine metal distributions in a proteome. Moreover, with the measurement of LA-ICP-MS, an in situ element-related image can be obtained in a tissue section. Figure 4.2 shows Cu distributions in the cross-section of a rat brain with a tumor region. " ... 

Latkoczy, C. and Gunther, D. (2002) Enhanced sensitivity in inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry for direct solid analysis using laser ablation (LA-ICP-SFMS). J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 17, 1264-70. 

ICP-AES was validated for the simultaneous determination of Al, B, Ba, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr and Zn in human serum in a clinical laboratory. The samples underwent digestion and yttrium was used as an internal standard. The LOD were as follows 0.002-0.003 (xM for Ba, Cd, Mn and Sr 0.014-0.07 (xM for Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Ni, Pb and Zn and 0.2-0.9 (xM for Al, B and Se. The concentrations of Al, Be and Co in human serum were found to be above the LOD, while those of Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb were below the LOQ however, in case of acute intoxication with the latter elements the method is valid . Matrix effects were evaluated for ICP-AES analysis using solution nebulization and laser ablation (LA) techniques. The main matrix-related interferences stem from elements with a low second ionization potential however, these are drastically reduced when pure He is used as carrier gas. This points to Ar (the usual carrier) participation in the interference mechanism, probably by interacting with doubly charged species. ... 

Three direct solid analysis mass spectrometric techniques allowing for lateral and/or depth resolution have been selected in this section laser ablation (LA) coupled to ICP-MS, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and GD-MS. 

Samples were analyzed using both LA-ICP-MS and ICP-MS of solutions to assess the impact on the results of the sampling by laser ablation. For ICP-MS analysis, less than 1 mg of material was dissolved in double distilled nitric acid. SRMs BIO, B12, 51.13-4 and 71.32-4 were prepared the same way, to obtain... 

Another key factor in the popularity of the technique is its increasingly widespread use in speciation chemistry. The current awareness of the importance of the chemical form in which an element is present in food (e.g., the oxidation state, the nature of the ligands, and the molecular structure), on its possible absorption and fate inside the body, has made elemental speciation a prominent topic of present research in the food science. If speciation critically influences the bioavailability, essentiality, or toxicity of an element, the analytical techniques that enable species discrimination and quantification gather prominence. ICP-MS has the capability for quantifying metal (metalloid)-containing species in a chromatographic or capillary electrophoresis effluent or, as recently demonstrated, in a gel spot after SDS-PAGE via electrothermal vaporization (ETV) or laser ablation (LA) [4, 5]. Hence, it has firmly established as a sensitive,... 

Gel electrophoresis (GE) is a common separation technique in protein analysis and it has also been used for the speciation of metals bound to proteins [86]. In most applications, metals have been detected by autoradiography, limiting the studies to those elements for which a relatively stable radionuclide exists [87]. As an example, 75Se radiotracer allowed Se to be detected after two-dimensional GE (2-DE) separation [88]. Owing to the high sensitivity and isotopic capability of ICP-MS, this technique has been proposed as the detection tool of choice for elements in gel. The efbcient transport of the sample from the protein spot on gel to plasma has been achieved by laser ablation (LA) [89, 90] and electrothermal (ET) atomization [62, 91] techniques. The... 

The direct analysis of homogenized solid material can be used if the sample of interest is hard to dissolve, or if the sample pre-treatment increases the risk of contamination or losses of the analyte. Solid samples (e.g. grape stones, skins) can be processed using lasers or heated cells to vaporize the sample. The vaporized sample can be directly introduced into the ICP-MS and measured. This technique is generally characterized by lower sample consumption and higher sensitivity. Solid sampling can be carried out for ICP-MS using electrothermal vaporization (ETV) or laser ablation (LA) sample introduction devices. 

By using microarray technology, protein quantitative detection on one spot microarray is usually not possible. However, recently analysis of a microarray through laser ablation (LA)-inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-MS has been introduced, increasing the feasibility of protein detection (40). 

Laser ablation Laser ablation (LA) in combination with the ICP atomiser has become a powerful and flexible techniqvie for solid sample introduction [47]. LA-AES has found its niche primarily as a bulk sampling technique for the analysis of bulk solid materials with a large focal spot (500—1000 pm). It offers comparable detection capability to spark ablation/emission but is not dependent on the sample being conductive. The experimental set-up, revealed in Fig. 12.32, consists in its simplest form of a pulsed laser (excimer- or Nd YAG-laser) with a defined pulse energy, some focusing optics, and a sample cell with a continuous Ar flow con-... 

Minute amounts of sample material ablated with the focused radiation of a pulsed laser are transported into an independent excitation source, e.g., inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for further atomization, excitation, or ionization. The detection of target atoms after laser ablation (LA) is performed by hyphenated techniques using optical emission or mass spectrometry LA-ICP-OES laser ablation-lCP-optical emission spectroscopy LA-ICP-MS laser ablation-l CP-mass spectrometry... 

Solid samples can be analyzed directly with ICP-MS by using laser ablation (LA) as a means of sample introduction ]43-45]. In this approach, a high-energy laser beam is focused onto the surface of the sample, placed in the ablation chamber. Upon impact of the laser pulse, a small amount of material is ablated and the dry aerosol thus formed is transported by means of a carrier gas (He or Ar) into the ICP (Figure 2.19). 

The corabination of an inductively coupled plasma ion source and a magnetic sector-based mass spectrometer equipped with a multi-collector (MC) array [multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS)] offers precise and reliable isotope ratio data for many solid elements. In fact, MC-ICP-MS provides data, the trueness (accuracy) and precision of which is similar to, or, in some cases, even superior to, that achieved by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), considered the benchmark technique for isotope ratio measurements of most solid elements [1], The basic strength of ICP-MS lies in the ion source, which achieves extremely high ionization efficiency for almost all elements [2, 3]. Consequently, MC-ICP-MS is likely to become the method of choice for many geochemists, because it is a versatile, user-friendly, and efficient method for the isotopic analysis of trace elements [4-8], The ICP ion source also accepts dry sample aerosols generated by laser ablation [9-16], The combination of laser ablation (LA) with ICP-MS is now widely accepted as a sensitive analytical tool for the elemental and isotopic analysis of solid samples. 

There are two principal means of sample introduction for isotopic analysis by MC-ICP-MS in geo- and cosmochemistry. Most common is the technique of solution nebulization, whilst laser ablation (LA) systems have been applied for in situ isotope ratio measurements [32]. As such, MC-ICP-MS complements both the TIMS and SIMS methodologies, which are the most common alterative methods for bulk sample and in situ isotopic analysis, respectively, in cosmochemical research. 

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