Solids spectrometric techniques, direct

SIMS is one of the only mass spectrometric techniques that allow solid samples to be analysed without any extraction of compounds or matrix addition. Generally, no specific preparation technique is required, and solid samples can directly be analysed if they are small enough to be fixed on the sample holder. In most cases, this means that the sample size must not be more than 1 cm. 

The introduction of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) in inorganic mass spectrometry means that there is an effective ion source operating at atmospheric pressure. Whereas solid mass spectrometric techniques allow direct analysis of solid samples in ICP-MS, the determination of trace impurities or isotope ratios in solid samples is often carried out after digestion and dissolution of the material. For the determination of trace impurities and isotope ratios in liquids, an additional nebulization... 

Routine inorganic elemental analysis is carried out nowadays mainly by atomic spectrometric techniques based on the measurement of the energy of photons. The most frequently used photons for analytical atomic spectrometry extend from the ultraviolet (UV 190-390 nm) to the visible (Vis 390-750 nm) regions. Here the analyte must be in the form of atoms in the gas phase so that the photons interact easily with valence electrons. It is worth noting that techniques based on the measurement of X-rays emitted after excitation of the sample with X-rays i.e. X-ray fluorescence, XRF) or with energetic electrons (electron-probe X-ray micro-analysis, EPXMA) yield elemental information directly from solid samples, but they will not be explained here instead, they will be briefly treated in Section 1.5. 

Figure 1.15 Comparison of the lateral and depth resolution allowed by different optical and mass spectrometric techniques used for direct solid analysis (A, IG, incident and emitted ions, respectively cT, electrons ho, photons). XPS and AES are included in the graph for comparison.

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. 

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