Polymer (Polydimethylsiloxane (pdms)) Microchip Plasma with Electrothermal Vaporization for the Determination of Metal Ions in Aqueous Solution

We previously reported a 27.12 MHz inductively coupled plasma source at atmospheric pressure for atomic emission spectrometry based on polymer microchip plasma technology. For the PDMS polymer microchip plasma, molecular emission was observed, but no metallic detection was done. In this experiment, a lab-made electrothermal vaporizer (ETV) with tantalum coil was connected to the microchip plasma for aqueous sample introduction to detect metal ions. The electrode geometry of this microchip plasma was redesigned for better stability and easy monitoring of emission. The plasma was operated at an rf power of 30-70 W using argon gas at 300 mL/min. Gas kinetic temperatures between 800-3200 K were obtained by measuring OH emission band. Limits of detection of about 20 ng/mL, 96.1 ng/mL, and 1.01 μ g/mL were obtained for alkali metals, Zn, and Pb, respectively, when 10 μ L samples in 0.1% nitric acid were injected into the ETV.