TY - JOUR A1 - Winckelmann, Alexander A1 - Roik, Janina A1 - Recknagel, Sebastian A1 - Abad Andrade, Carlos Enrique A1 - You, Zengchao T1 - Investigation of matrix effects in nitrogen microwave inductively coupled atmospheric-pressure plasma mass spectrometry (MICAP-MS) for trace element analysis in steels N2 - We investigated the performance of nitrogen microwave inductively coupled atmospheric-pressure plasma mass spectrometry (MICAP-MS) under matrix effects and its applicability to trace element analysis in steels. Influences of different gas flows and ion optics on the matrix tolerance are studied, indicating that nebulizer gas flow has the most significant impact. Optimization of ion optics improves matrix tolerance for light elements due to the reduction of the inelastic collisional scattering effect. With optimized operating conditions, MICAP-MS achieves an internal standard intensity recovery of over 90% at an Fe concentration of 500 mg Lāˆ’1. Even at an Fe concentration of 1 g Lāˆ’1, the recovery remains above 80%. Three certified reference materials ā€“ non-alloy, low-alloy and high-alloy steel ā€“ were analyzed using MICAP-MS. The determined mass concentrations of the trace and minor components show metrological compatibility to the reference values. No significant differences are observed between the results obtained with aqueous and matrix-matched calibration, demonstrating the strong matrix tolerance of MICAP-MS, and its promising applicability to steel analysis. KW - MICAP-MS KW - Trace Analysis KW - Steel PY - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-576323 SN - 0267-9477 VL - 38 IS - 6 SP - 1253 EP - 1260 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-57632 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -