Preparation of microcrystalline mixtures for calibration of laser microbeam ionisation mass spectrometry

In this paper we describe the optimized experimental procedure and the apparatus to prepare microcrystalline samples of inorganic salt mixtures to be used as molecular standards in Laser Microprobe Mass Spectrometry (LMMS). Experimental data show the suitability of the approach for preparation of solid mixtures of various inorganic salts. The structure and homogeneity of the samples are studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy and Fourier Transform LMMS. Specifically, the in-sample and between-sample reproducibility reveals that the method allows the local sample composition to be sufficiently homogeneous for subsequent use in the semi-quantitative calibration of the molecular signals in LMMS.