Trace Analysis of Selected High-Purity Metals Using High-Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry

Different atomic spectrometric methods with inductively coupled plasma flames (ICP) have been studied in order to evaluate their suitability to contribute to the certification of trace element contents in pure metals. The investigations used ICP mass spectrometry with a high-resolution instrument (HR-ICP-MS) and with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (quadrupole ICP-MS) and compared them with ICP optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). 20 to 40 trace elements (analytes) were analyzed using solutions of high-purity Al, Cu, Ga, In and Zn at different concentration levels of these matrices as an experimental parameter. For the examples investigated the HR-ICP-MS was demonstrated to be most versatile and of highest performance. However, important information on the multi-element trace concentrations can be obtained by other methods, too, provided adopted matrix concentrations are used and spectral interferences are handled carefully.