Steve Wilbur

A method to measure ultrafine silica nanoparticles using ICP-MS/MS to control the elemental and polyatomic ion backgrounds is described here.

This table is supplementary information to the article "Accurate Measurement of Ultrafine Silica Nanoparticles Using ICP-MS/MS," which was published in the September 2017 supplement issue "Applications of ICP & ICP-MS Techniques for Today’s Spectroscopists" to Spectroscopy.

ICP-MS is widely used for the multielement analysis of trace metals in drinking waters. The newly designed 7800 ICP-MS accurately measured drinking waters for all required elements at regulated levels, without the need for either reactive cell gases or complex interference equations. Using helium collision mode, selenium detection limits less than 20 parts per trillion (ppt) are now routinely achievable.

A challenging 15 hour sequence of high matrix soils, waters, seawaters and sediments was analyzed according to US EPA Method 6020A using a new ICP-MS designed for routine applications. With a single collision cell mode for polyatomic interference removal and superior matrix tolerance with an aerosol dilution system, excellent recovery of certified values for six SRMs with no quality control failures throughout the sequence was achieved.