Gas phase ion-molecule interactions in a collision reaction cell with QQQ-ICP-MS: Investigations with N2O as the reaction gas
Abstract
Gas phase ion-molecule reactions have great potential in ICP-MS as a method for resolving difficult isobaric interferences with target analyte species. Nitrous oxide (N2O) was used as a reaction gas to investigate gas phase ion-molecule interactions using the Agilent 8900 QQQ-ICP-MS. A multi-element standard containing 39 elements with masses ranging from 9 to 208 u was measured in the presence and absence of N2O. The main product ion species observed were oxides and nitrides. Comparison of the N2O reaction results with similar measurements conducted with O2 revealed that N2O was more effective at forming oxides: the elements Be, Cd and Pb were shown to produce oxides with N2O where the reaction did not occur with O2. Similarly, N2O produced oxides in greater abundance than O2 in elements such as Sr, Ba and the lanthanides. Nitrous oxide was also shown to produce a significant amount of nitride species in a few elements. Nitride formation showed a greater degree of selectivity, particularly amongst the lanthanides, which suggests that nitride formation may be a suitable product for mass shift method development. Nitrous oxide was also shown to be effective at suppressing plasma species such as ArN+. The results of this work are but one example of how creative selection of reaction gases can be effective for developing novel ICP-MS methods that enhance our analytical capability.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMV033.0009H
- Keywords:
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- 0452 Instruments and techniques;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0454 Isotopic composition and chemistry;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1194 Instruments and techniques;
- GEOCHRONOLOGY;
- 8494 Instruments and techniques;
- VOLCANOLOGY