Determination of Major Metals in Arctic Snow by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry with Cold Plasma and Microconcentric Nebulization Techniques

Abstract

A method was developed for the determination of K, Ca, Mg, Na, Al and Fe in Arctic snow samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Shield torch system under cold plasma conditions was used to overcome the spectral interferences from the plasma gas on ³⁹K (³⁸ArH), ⁴⁰Ca (⁴⁰Ar) and ⁵⁶Fe (⁴⁰Ar¹⁶O). Detection limits (3σ) were 1, 1, 2, 7, 6 and 3 ng/l for Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca and Fe, respectively. Reproducibility of measurements was better than 2% relative standard deviation (n=10) for all the elements of interest at 1.0 μg/l level. The sample consumption was ca. 60 μl per assay due to the use of a microconcentric nebulizer. Several Arctic snow samples were analysed and the reliability of the proposed method was confirmed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry.

Key Words:

• Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
• cold plasma
• microconcentric nebulizer
• major metals
• Arctic snow