A two-jet plasmatron for the spectrochemical analysis of geological samples

The analytical possibilities with a two-jet plasmatron with non-consumable electrodes have been investigated. Large amounts of easily ionised additives present in the plasma enhance atom line intensities of trace elements, the effect being greater the lower the ionisation potential of the element but the effect on ion line intensities is not significant. The temperature of the plasma is only slightly affected by the ionisation potential of the substance introduced into the plasma.Analytical errors caused by variations in the matrix and mineralogical composition of samples are of the same order as the random error of analysis. The analysis of different types of rock samples can be made using a single standard procedure giving a relative standard deviation of 4–6 % and detection limits between 10^?5 and 10^?7 %. A feature of the analytical method is the direct analysis of solid samples.