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ICP Plasma

Definition

Inductively coupled argon plasma at 6,000 to 10,000 K that atomises and ionises samples in ICP-MS, generating singly charged elemental ions for the quadrupole.

Related terms

Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionisation (APCI)
A complementary atmospheric-pressure source that vaporises the LC eluent and uses a corona discharge to ionise a reagent gas, which transfers charge...
Electrospray Ionisation (ESI)
A soft atmospheric-pressure ionisation source that sprays the LC eluent through a charged capillary into a heated counter-current gas, producing protonated or...
Hyphenation
Online coupling of a separation technique (GC, LC, ICP) with a spectrometric detector (MS, FTIR) so identification happens within the same run....
Interface
The hardware bridge that transfers analyte from the separation stage to the detector while removing the unwanted mobile phase (carrier gas, solvent,...
Internal Standard / Deuterated Standard
A chemically similar (often perdeuterated) compound spiked into the sample to correct for matrix effects and ionisation suppression. Standard practice in forensic...
Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)
Specialised MS that measures precise ratios of light stable isotopes (delta values of 2H, 13C, 15N, 18O, 34S) on a continuous-flow combustion...
Jet Separator
Early GC-MS interface (Ryhage, 1964) that used differential pumping through a nozzle to enrich analyte and bleed helium. Replaced by direct capillary...

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