Article
Performance Evaluation of an axially viewed horizontal inductively coupled plasma for optical emission spectrometry
Spectrochimica Acta Part B
(1995)
Abstract
A performance evaluation of a horizontal axially viewed inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for optical
emission spectrometry is presented. The main contribution of this work is the elucidation of the sources
of analytical performance differences using practical diagnostics in the comparison of axial and conventional
radial viewing of the ICP. Figures of merit such as detection limit, background equivalent concentration,
precision, and dynamic range are compared for both viewing arrangements. The detection limit
improvements, with axial viewing, known from previous work in the literature, are shown to be understood
in the context of the signal-to-background-ratio relative-standard-deviation-of-the-background (SBRRSDB)
theory. The usefulness of the SBR-RSDB approach as a diagnostic tool for understanding the
detection limit improvement and identifying performance differences is demonstrated. This approach can
be further utilized for quality control and quality assurance of instrument performance and detection limit
results. Other characteristic differences between axial and radial viewing are presented including matrix
effects on line signals and the magnitudes of spectral interferences from OH bands. An overall improvement
factor of five in detection power was observed when using axial viewing compared with radial viewing.
Keywords
- ICP,
- ICP-OES,
- Optical emission spectrometry
Disciplines
Publication Date
1995
Citation Information
Julian Tyson and Juan C. Ivaldi. "Performance Evaluation of an axially viewed horizontal inductively coupled plasma for optical emission spectrometry" Spectrochimica Acta Part B Vol. 50 (1995) p. 1207 - 1226 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/julian_tyson/141/