Practical guide to ICP-MS / Практическое руководство по ICP-MS

Milestones mark great events: walking on the moon, analyzing rocks on Mars, flying a self-propelled, heavier-than-air machine, using a Bunsen burner for flame atomic spectrometry, and perhaps employing an atmospheric pressure plasma mass spectrometry as an ion source for solution mass spectrometry. Yes, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) ranks among the milestone inventions of spectrochemical analysis during the 20th century. The great event of ICP-Ms, however, is the enrichment of quantitative ultratrace element and isotope analysis capabilities that has become possible on a daily, routine basis in modern analytical, clinical, forensics, and industrial laboratories. During the past 20 years ICP-MS has grown from R. Sam Houk’s Ph.D. research project at the Ames Laboratory on the Iowa State University campus to an invaluable tool fabricated on many continents and applied internationally. Although ICP-MS does not share the universal practicality of the electric light, the laser, or the transistor, it ranks in analytical chemistry along with the development of atomic absorption spectrophotometry, coulometry, dc arc and spark emission spectrography, gravimetry, polarography, and titrimetry.
What can we expect to find in a new technical book, especially one describing ICP-MS in few hundred pages? Do we anticipate a refreshing approach to a well-established topic, answers to unsolved questions, clear insights into complicated problems, astute reviews and critical evaluations of developments, and meaningful consideration of areas for future advancement? We would be satisfied if any of these goals were achieved. Today library bookshelves bear the weight of the writing efforts of numerous recognized researchers and a few practitioners of ICP. Some of these works deserve to stay in the library, while very few others are kept at hand on the analyst’s desk, with stained pages and worn bindings as evidence of their heavy use. This volume is intended to be among the latter. <...>