Zastosowanie spektrometrii mas z jonizacją w plazmie indukcyjnie sprzężonej z mikropróbkowaniem laserowym do oznaczania składu pierwiastkowego pyłów

In laser ablation (LA) a very little amount of solid material is transferred to the gas phase followed by its transport to the source of excitation. The coupling of laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and mass analyzer (MS) allows direct determination of elemental composition of solids. In the case of congested solid samples, LA ICPMS makes possible analysis of element distribution in surface and sub-surface domains of a sample. Unfortunately, not all solid substances appear in congested form as sometimes an analyst receives solid samples in a form of powder. The number of papers related to the possibilities of quantitative analysis of disintegrated samples has been increasing during last years. However, direct analysis of powders, such as soils, sediments or dust, is not possible. Thus the initial step in preparation of such samples is their immobilization in support base, which enables analysis of material of interest without changing sample properties. In this article the possibilities of analysis of immobilized powder samples using ablation process are presented. Homogeneity of powder deposition, purity of material and quality of the ablation process are important parameters and may be used as criteria. Correctness of material selection has to be always confirmed with chosen reference materials. The procedure allowing uniform and reproducible immobilisation of bottom sediment as well as a calibration measurement system with the use of external standards with similar matrix as samples are presented.