Comparative studies on metal determination in airborne particulates by LA-ICP-MS and furnace atomization non-thermal excitation spectrometry

Air pollution, especially by metallic aerosols, has toxic effects on soil and water, biological environment, and human health. Therefore the determination of metal contents in airborne dust is of particular relevance. For measurements with high resolution in time and space a rapid analytical method is necessary as well as short and efficient sampling. Two techniques for rapid multielement trace analysis were compared with respect to the determination of metallic, aerosol concentration in air. In both methods air was sucked through a filter material which subsequently was analyzed without any additional pretreatment. When La-ICP-MS was applied, quartz fibre filters were used as collectors which were then ablated employing a Nd:YAG laser for analyses by ICP-MS. With FANES a special porous graphite tube acted as an efficient particle collector. When inserted into the FANES source the graphite tube simultaneously serves as thermal atomizer and hollow cathode so that collected particulates were vaporized and excited in the tube for optical emission spectrometry. For signal registration an echelle polychromator was used. With FANES detection limits based on the 3 -criterion range between 0.2 and 2 ng/m³ for 10 elements. With quartz filters comparable results can be obtained only after enrichment by more than a 500-fold air volume. Measured metallic aerosol concentrations in ambient air by both methods do not differ within the 95% significance level.