Hydraulic high pressure nebulization—application of a new nebulization system for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract Hydraulic high pressure nebulization (HHPN) has been introduced primarily for atomic emission and absorption spectrometry. We have applied this promising nebulization technique for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with corresponding optimization of the system. A very fine aerosol is produced by the HHPN system with a nozzle of 10 μm diameter in front of an impact bead contained in a spray chamber of reduced size. A desolvation system was applied in order to reduce the high water loading of the aerosol. A nebulization efficiency of 30% was measured at the exit of the spray chamber. In comparison to conventional pneumatic nebulization, an intensity gain by a factor of 31, on average, was observed with HHPN for 22 elements out of 23 under investigation, boron being the only exception. A consiberable reduction of interferent equivalent concentrations was observed for some important interferences. The system was operated in a continuous mode and in an injection mode.