Determination of trace elements in biological samples treated with formic acid by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry using a microconcentric nebulizer

A simple and fast method for the determination of As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ga, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Sr, Tl, U, V and Zn in biological samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), after sample solubilization with formic acid and introduction by a microconcentric nebulizer, is proposed. The sample is mixed with formic acid, kept at 90 °C for one hour and then diluted with nitric acid aqueous solution to a 50% v/v formic acid and 1% v/v nitric acid final concentrations. The final sample solution flow rate for introduction into the plasma was 30 μL min⁻¹. The optimized and adopted nebulizer gas flow rate was 0.7 L min⁻¹ and RF power was 800 W. These conditions are very different than those normally used when a conventional nebulizer is employed. Rodhium was used as internal standard. External calibration against aqueous standard solutions, without formic acid, could be used for quantification, except for As, Se and Zn. However, external calibration with 50% formic acid allows the determination of all analytes with high accuracy and it is recommended. The detection limits were between 0.0005 (Tl) and 0.22 mg kg⁻¹ (Fe) and the precision expressed by the relative standard deviations (RSD) were between 0.2% (Sr) and 3.5% (Ga). Accuracy was validated by the analysis of four certified reference biological materials of animal tissues, comparing the results by linear regressions and by the t-test at a 95% confidence level. The recommended procedure avoids plasma instability and carbon deposit on the cones.