Multielement spectroscopy, performance

Metals can be conveniently determined by emission spectroscopy using inductively coupled plasma (ICP). A great advantage of ICP emission spectroscopy as applied to environmental analysis is that several metals can be determined simultaneously by this method. Thus, multielement analysis of unknown samples can be performed rapidly by this technique. Another advantage is that, unlike atomic absorption spectroscopy, the chemical interference in this method is very low. Chemical interferences are generally attributed to the formation of molecular compounds (from the atoms) as well as to ionization and thermochemical effects. The principle of the ICP method is described below. 

Standard solutions of inorganic species, both non-metals and metals, are particularly widely used in laboratories. Multielement metal standards, for use in ICP emission spectroscopy and other multielement techniques, must be backed with a guarantee that high-purity components are used in their formulation otherwise, trace impurities in the individual ingredients may contribute significantly toward total quantities of the very elements it is required to measure. Undesirable blanks of this kind are easily overlooked and can seriously degrade analytical performance. 

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