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ICP-MS has played a key role in inorganic chemical metrology for 25 years, from the 1993 CIPM feasibility study which led to establishment of the CCQM. Since that time, the Inorganic Analysis Working Group of the CCQM has organised 56 international comparisons involving measurements by ICP-MS and, in a recent comparison, 16 different national institutes submitted their results using the technique. Metrological applications of ICP-MS currently address an enormous range of measurements using a wide variety of instrumentation, calibration strategies and methodologies. This review provides an overview of the ICP-MS field with an emphasis on developments which are of particular relevance to chemical metrology.
Examples from CCQM comparisons and the services available from the participants are used to illustrate how the capability and scope of ICP-MS methods have expanded far beyond the expectations of 1993. This is due in part to the research and development Programmes of the national institutes which participate in the CCQM. They have played a key role in advancing new instrumentation and applications for elemental analysis, isotope dilution mass spectrometry, determination of isotopic ratio or composition, and speciation of organometallic compounds. These developments are continuing today, as demonstrated by work in new fields such as heteroatom quantitation of proteins, characterisation and counting of nanoparticles using spICP-MS, and LA-ICP-MS analysis of solid materials.
For the first time, an international comparison was conducted on the determination of the purity of a high purity element. Participants were free to choose any analytical approach appropriate for their institute’s applications and services. The material tested was a high purity zinc, which had earlier been assessed for homogeneity and previously used in CCQM-K72 for the determination of six defined metallic impurities. Either a direct metal assay of the Zn mass fraction was undertaken by EDTA titrimetry, or an indirect approach was used wherein all impurities, or at least the major ones, were determined and their sum subtracted from ideal purity of 100 %, or 1 kg/kg. Impurity assessment techniques included glow discharge mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and carrier gas hot extraction/combustion analysis. Up to 91 elemental impurities covering metals, non-metals and semi-metals/metalloids were quantified. Due to the lack of internal experience or experimental capabilities, some participants contracted external laboratories for specific analytical tasks, mainly for the analysis of non-metals. The reported purity, expressed as zinc mass fraction in the high purity zinc material, showed excellent agreement for all participants, with a relative standard deviation of 0.011 %. The calculated reference value, w(Zn) = 0.999 873 kg/kg, was assigned an asymmetric combined uncertainty of + 0.000025 kg/kg and – 0.000028 kg/kg. Comparability amongst participating metrology institutes is thus demonstrated for the purity determination of high purity metals which have no particular difficulties with their decomposition / dissolution process when solution-based analytical methods are used, or which do not have specific difficulties when direct analysis approaches are used. Nevertheless, further development is required in terms of uncertainty assessment, quantification of non-metals and the determination of purity of less pure elements and/or for those elements suffering difficulties with the decomposition process.
The major source of the anthropogenic platinum group element (PGE) emission is attributed to the use of catalytic converters in automobiles. This paper describes the work performed by three National Metrology Institutes (Laboratoire national de métrologie et dessais, by the Physikalisch-technische bundesanstalt, Bundesanatalt für materialforschung und prûfung), in the framework of the Joint Research Project 'PartEmission' under the European Metrology Research Program. An analytical procedure based on a cationic exchange protocol and the isotope dilution or standard addition using an Inductived Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, ICP-MS, for the quantification of the elements Pt, Pd and Rh from automotive exhaust emissions is described. Results obtained on a road dust certified reference (BCR 723) material showed a good agreement with the certified values, at ng/g levels, and relative expanded uncertainties within the range of 7–10%. Analysis of filters impacted with automotive exhaust particle emissions (from a diesel engine) showed the amount of collected PGE at levels of 10–1000 pg/filter. Their quantifications followed the developed analytical protocol that had been carried out with relative expanded uncertainties in the range of a few per cent up to 20% per filter. Nevertheless, a lack of homogeneity between the filters was observed, making the comparison between the project partners difficult in the sake of the validation of their analytical procedures on real samples.
A two-step separation procedure for the quantification of Pd and Pt in automotive exhaust emissions using isotope dilution mass spectrometry was established using a combination of cation and anion exchange chemistry. AG 50W-X12 was used as cation exchange resin and DGA as weakly basic anion exchange resin. This procedure enabled the effective separation of Pd and Pt from the matrix and from interfering elements. Additionally Pd and Pt were collected in separate chromatographic fractions, which increased the precision of the isotope ratio determination by separate measurements using single collector sector field ICPMS. The analytical procedure was validated by analysing the synthetically prepared samples and the certified reference materials BCR-723 (road dust) and IAEA-450 (algae). For the SI-traceable results complete uncertainty budgets were calculated yielding relatively expanded uncertainties (k = 2) of ≈1% for analyte masses in the ng range. Procedure blanks of 55 pg Pd and 3 pg Pt were obtained. The detection limits were calculated as 12 pg for Pd and 7 pg for Pt. Additionally, Pd and Pt blank levels of different filter materials are presented as well as the first results for automotive exhaust particles collected on cellulose filters.
We report an appropriate preparation of binary isotope calibration mixtures of the three stable isotopes of magnesium to be used in the ab initio calibration of multicollector mass spectrometers (ICPMS and TIMS). For each of the three possible combinations of binary mixtures ("24Mg" + "25Mg", "24Mg" + "26Mg", and "25Mg" + "26Mg"), three individual setups have been prepared under gravimetric control, each of them with an isotope ratio close to unity, and a total magnesium mass fraction close to 20 mg kg-1. The preparation was designed to occur via an intermediate dilution of a parent solution of a highly purified specimen of the isotopically enriched magnesium materials. For the application as calibration mixtures, a complete uncertainty budget was set up, and is presented and discussed in detail, including the aspects that went into the design of the dilution and mixing approach to minimize uncertainty. The principle parameters for the purpose of the later calibration of the mass spectrometers are the absolute masses of isotopically enriched magnesium materials in the primary calibration mixtures. For the first time relative expanded uncertainties U (k = 2) for these masses of ≤0.005% could be achieved for all mixtures.