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Elsevier, Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, (76), p. 56-64

DOI: 10.1016/j.sab.2012.06.006

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Optimization of operating parameters for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry : a computational study

Journal article published in 2012 by Maryam Aghaei, Helmut Lindner, Annemie Bogaerts ORCID
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

An inductively coupled plasma, connected to a mass spectrometer interface, is computationally investigated. The effect of pressure behind the sampler, injector gas flow rate, auxiliary gas flow rate, and applied power is studied. There seems to be an optimum range of injector gas flow rate for each setup which guaranties the presence and also a proper length of the central channel in the torch. Moreover, our modeling results show that for any specific purpose, it is possible to control that either only the central gas flow passes through the sampler orifice or that it is accompanied by the auxiliary gas flow. It was also found that depending on geom-etry, the variation of outgoing gas flow rate is much less than the variation of the injector gas flow rate and this causes a slightly higher pressure inside the torch. The general effect of increasing the applied power is a rise in the plasma temperature, which results in a higher ionization in the coil region. However, the negative effect is reducing the length of the cool central channel which is important to transfer the sample substances to the sampler. Using a proper applied power can enhance the efficiency of the system. Indeed, by changing the gas path lines, the power can control which flow (i.e., only from injector gas or also from the auxiliary gas) goes to the sampler orifice. Finally, as also reported from experiments in literature, the pressure behind the sampler has no dramatic effect on the plasma characteristics.