Special Issues-11-01-2014

Low-level analysis of food matrices has placed a demand on manufacturers, testing laboratories, and instrumentation vendors worldwide. Stricter regulations, better analytical instrumentation, and greatly improved sample preparation (preanalytical) techniques have focused efforts to simplify and standardize these analyses. Often overlooked, the preanalytical step determines the quality of the resulting data and requires careful attention to a number of details, including sample size, digestion parameters, and the level of detection needed.

Multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) has some specific advantages over traditional ICP-MS instruments.

A novel approach to handling samples with very high and variable levels of sample matrix is to use aerosol dilution, whereby the amount of sample aerosol that reaches the plasma is reduced by dilution with an additional argon gas stream.

This article compares several performance criteria such as full width at half maximum, background equivalent concentrations, limits of detection, purge requirements, and results for some substances for the "traditional" As lines at 188.979, 193.696, and 197.197 nm for the "new" line at 228.812 nm.

Rare earth elements (REEs) have become indispensable in many electronic, optical, magnetic, and catalytic applications because of their specific properties such as magnetism and phosphorescence, as well as their ability to both donate and accept electrons.

Click the title above to open the Spectroscopy November 2014 ICP & ICP-MS Supplement, Vol 29 No s11, in an interactive PDF format.