Using CO2 Reactions to Achieve Mass-spectrometric Discrimination in Simultaneous Plutonium-isotope Speciation with Inductively Coupled Plasma-Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Simultaneous isotope speciation of various Pu isotopes is difficult to achieve with conventional inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) owing to isobaric interferences. In analyzing ICP tandem MS (ICP-MS/MS), CO2 gas reactions in a dynamic reaction cell (DRC) almost eliminated the background noise intensity produced by isobaric interference from isotopes originating from actinides such as Am, Cm, and U at the locations (m/z) of significant Pu isotopes (Pu-239, Pu-240, (241)pu, Pu-242, and Pu-244).

Automated summary

Conventional ICP-MS struggles with simultaneous speciation of different Pu isotopes due to isobaric interferences, but ICP-MS/MS with CO2 gas reactions in a dynamic reaction cell effectively eliminates background noise caused by isotopic interference, enabling simultaneous analysis of Pu isotopes.