Data acquisition of transient signals in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry Original Research Article

The effect of data acquisition parameters and the characteristics of transient signals on limits of detection, accuracy and precision has been studied. From the point of view of peak detectability, long dwell times should be used to reduce baseline noise but the data acquisition frequency will be low. In order to get enough number of data points per peak, the width of the peak has been controlled by parameters affecting peak dispersion (injection volume, flow rate, connecting tubes). Due to the multielement nature of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, the influence of the number of isotopes measured has also been considered. Proper quantification by means of the integration of transient signals has been achieved by acquiring a small number of points per peak (less than 10) and results have been comparable to those obtained with more data points (tens or hundreds). In practice, 71 elements have been determined by measuring 211 isotopes in transient signals obtained by injecting 560 μl at 1.2 ml min−1, with dwell times of 100 ms (three data points per peak).