Spectral interferences from polyatomic barium ions in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

For the Element2 (a relatively new high-sensitivity magnetic sector ICP MS), we have studied spectral interferences from barium arising as a result of polyatomic barium ions, which have a considerable effect on the intensity of lines for rare-earth isotopes. We have shown that the parameters characterizing the interferences (the ratios of the signals from oxygen-containing, chlorine-containing, and fluorine-containing BaX⁺ ions to the Ba⁺ signal, and the apparent rare-earth concentrations C_{app j} resulting when overlap from polyatomic Ba occurs) are higher for the Element2 than for a quadrupole instrument (PQ2⁺). However, it is possible to solve many spectral overlap problems when using the Element2 by using the medium-resolution (MR) or high-resolution (HR) modes. We have estimated the resolutions needed to completely separate the masses of the polyatomic barium ions and the rare-earth isotopes in the spectrum. For cases when it is impossible to use the high-resolution mode due to the ∼100-fold decrease in sensitivity, we recommend preliminary separation of Ba from the rare earths. In this work, we have used extraction chromatography to determine low rare-earth concentration levels in Lake Baikal water. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 73, No. 6, pp. 813–818, November–December, 2006.