Limit of quantitation in atomic spectrometry: An unambiguous concept?

This document presents a tutorial description of several concepts and definitions of limits of quantitation, such as the so-called 10 s, the RSDnet, the method limit, the lower limit of the calibration graph and the uncertainty approaches. Use, advantages, limitations and complexity of the various approaches are illustrated with some examples taken from atomic spectrometry, using ICP-AES, ICP-MS and LIBS. Information that can be deduced from the calibration graph is emphasized. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.