Low power capacitively coupled plasma microtorch for simultaneous multielemental determination by atomic emission using microspectrometers

A new, low power capacitively coupled plasma microtorch (30W, 13.56 MHz, 0.5 L min(-1) Ar) was investigated in conjunction with commercially available microspectrometers for the simultaneous multielemental analysis by atomic emission spectrometry of liquid samples without desolvation. Emission spectrum is simpler than in ICP-AES, the resonance lines are the most intense, so that a microspectrometer with FWHM of at least 1.5 nm is satisfactory for the record. The deviation from the Boltzmann distribution for Fe I has demonstrated the departure from the LTE in plasma. The non-spectral matrix effects of Li, Na, K, Ca and Mg on analytes emission are depressive and depend on matrix volatility, ionization potential of the interferent and analyte excitation energy. The detection limits (mu g mL(-1)) are in the range 0.003 (Li) and 1.5 (Mn). The use of the standard additions method allowed the simultaneous determination of elements in environmental certified reference materials with overall recovery of 95 +/- 10% and relative standard deviation of 1.7-8.2%. Compared to the traditional ICP, the microtorch has a simple construction, runs at low argon flow and can be integrated in a portable system suitable for in-situ simultaneous determination of elements. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.