In situ high-precision Ni isotope analysis of metals by femtosecond-LA-MC-ICP-MSElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7ja00147a

In this study, an in situ technique for high-precision determination of Ni stable isotope ratios by femtosecond-laser ablation-multicollector-ICP-MS (fs-LA-MC-ICP-MS) was developed. With this technique, the Ni isotope compositions of Ni-bearing steels (NIST RM-1226 and BAM D 184-1) and a Ni-rod (standard 10209 from MAC) were determined, both by fs-LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses and by solution MC-ICP-MS, the latter in order to verify the results of the in situ analyses. The LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses revealed that all analyzed standard materials were homogeneous within analytical uncertainties and may thus be suitable as external standards for Ni isotope determination by in situ analysis of metal phases and sulfides. Bulk solution MC-ICP-MS and LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses of these metals agreed within their analytical uncertainties of 0.03‰ for the solution analyses and