| Laser ablation (LA) as a direct solid sampling method for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been used for the analysis of glass, ceramic, and soil samples. The strength of this technique is that it can be applied to essentially any solid material and eliminates the need for difficult and time consuming dissolution procedures. The major limitation of LA-ICP-MS is the presence of matrix effects, making quantitation difficult in the absence of standards of identical composition.;This work was largely concerned with the development of methodology for obtaining accurate quantitative results from a variety of solid materials, including glasses, ceramics, and soils without the need for matrix-matched standards. The use of solution-based calibration for the analysis of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) glass resulted in excellent agreement (typically +/;The use of solution-based calibration for soil samples resulted in poorer agreement than in the case of glasses and ceramics; however, results were still within +/;A compact, inexpensive laser was also evaluated for LA-ICP-MS measurements. It was used for the analysis of glass and aluminum samples and provided low to sub-ppm detection limits for the analytes studied. |
