Potential of Solid Sampling Electrothermal Vaporization for solving spectral interference in Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry

Spectral interference is one of the main causes of erroneous results in Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). This paper describes some cases of spectral interferences with conventional nebulization ICP-OES and the potential of solving them utilizing electrothermal vaporization for volatility-based separation. The cases studied were, the well-known spectral overlap between the As and Cd lines at 228.8 nm that are only 10 pm apart, and the interference of Fe on the main emission lines of As, Cd and Pb. The spectral interferences were studied by monitoring the typical signals of solutions that contain the analytes and the potential interferent, by studying the spectra and calculating Background Equivalent Concentration (BEC)-values. A three step temperature program was developed to be used for direct analysis of solid soil samples by Electrothermal Vaporization (ETV)-ICP-OES: step 1 (760 °C, 40 s), step 2 (1620 °C, 20 s) and a cleaning step (2250 °C, 10 s) where Cd vaporizes in step 1, As, Pb and part of Fe in step 2 and the major part of Fe in the cleaning step. Because As and Cd were time-separated using this program, their prominent lines at 228.8 nm, could be used for determination of each element by ETV-ICP-OES, in spite of the serious wavelength overlap. Selective vaporization was also shown to reduce or eliminate the Fe background emission on As, Cd and Pb lines. To confirm the applicability of the method, a solid soil certified reference materials was analyzed directly without any sample treatment. Good or reasonable accuracy was obtained for the three elements.