Effect of analyte and solvent transport on signal intensities in inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Aerosols generated with several different nebulizers have been characterized by their major aerosol characteristics, namely the Sauter mean drop diameter, D 3,2, the analyte mass transport, W tot, the solvent mass transport, S tot, the analyte transport efficiency, ϵ n, and the solvent transport efficiency, ϵ s. These characteristic aerosol parameters have been compared with the magnitudes of analytical signals, I net, generated in an inductively coupled plasma, in order to examine the possible existence of interrelationships between them. For three of the nebulizers tested, a reasonably linear correlation between W tot and I net was observed with water as solvent. For the fourth, a crossflow-type nebulizer, which produced a tertiary aerosol with a significantly larger mean drop size than the other nebulizers, the relationship between W tot and I net was not linear. For the organic solvents tested, methanol and n-butanol, solvent/plasma interactions were sufficiently strong as to make the relationship between W tot and I net quite complex.