Controlled dissolution of silicon dioxide layers for depth resolved multielement analysis by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

Dissolution procedures were developed to control the number of surface layers removed, in an attempt to achieve depth resolved analysis by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). NIST 612 glass was chosen because it is a homogeneous material with many elements at interesting concentrations, ~ 50 ppm. Varying dissolution time and HF concentration resulted in the reproducible removal of SiO2 layers as thin as 70 Å deep. Dissolved trace metals were determined after dilution by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with a magnetic sector instrument. The amount removed was determined from the concentration of a major element, Ca. With the exception of Zn, trace metal concentrations agreed reasonably well with their certified values for removal depths of 500, 300 and 150 Å. Zinc concentration was significantly high in all dissolutions indicating either a contamination problem or that Zn is removed at a faster rate than Ca. For the dissolutions that removed 70 Å of SiO2, Cr, Mn, Co, Sr, Cd, Ce, Dy, Er, Yb and U recovery results agreed with their certified values (~ 50 ppm); Ti, As, Mo, Ba, and Th could not be determined because net intensities were below 3σ of the blank; and measured concentrations for Cu, Pb and Zn were well above the certified values.