On line vapor generation of osmium based on solution cathode glow discharge for the determination by ICP-OES

A novel plasma induced vapor generation method is proposed to determine osmium in solutions. Without any chemical oxidizing agents, osmium ion can be readily converted to volatile osmium tetraoxide vapor in the solution cathode glow discharge (SCGD) system. The generated osmium vapor is then transported to inductively coupled plasma for determination by optical emission spectrometry. The influences of background electrolyte, carrier gas flow rate, sample flow rate, ICP power and discharge current were investigated. The analytical performances of this proposed technique were evaluated under optimized conditions. The detection limit of Os was calculated to be 0.51 ng mL−1. The reproducibility, expressed as the relative standard deviation (n=11) of a 2.0 μg mL−1 standard solution, was 1.9%. This SCGD induced vapor generation is sensitive and simple, oxidation reagents free, providing an alternative analytical method for measuring Os in geological or environmental water samples.