Determination of Lithium, Beryllium and Boron at Trace Levels by Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Sector Field Mass Spectrometry |
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| Authors: | Massimo Tiepolo Alberto Zanetti Riccardo Vannucci |
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| Institution: | C.N.R., Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Sezione di Pavia, via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy;Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universitàdegli Studi di Pavia, via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy |
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| Abstract: | The analytical capabilities of laser ablation (LA)-ICP-MS in determining Li, Be and B at trace levels in geological samples have been tested on a series of glass reference materials and natural samples. The LA-ICP-MS instrument used consisted of a sector-field ICP-MS coupled with a laser ablation microprobe operating at either 266 or 213 nm wavelength. Reference glasses from NIST (SRM 612, 614 and 616) and MPI-DING (KL2-G, ML3B-G, StHs6/80-G, GOR128-G, GOR132-G, T1-G and ATHO-G) were selected to develop the analytical method and to assess the best instrumental configuration. A series of calcic amphiboles with different Li, Be and B concentrations were also analysed using both LA-ICP-MS and SIMS to test the applicability of the method to natural minerals. Results indicated that with a spot size of 40 μm the agreement between measured and reference values of Li, Be and B is generally better than 10% for NIST SRM 612 and 20% for NIST SRM 614. Average reproducibility at the 2s level was 10% for Li, 20% for Be and 15% for B. Limits of detection were approximately 100 ng g-1 for Be and B and 200 ng g-1 for Li. These results were confirmed by analyses carried out on natural amphiboles and compared well in terms of precision and accuracy with those commonly achieved by SIMS. |
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| Keywords: | light lithophile elements laser ablation sector field ICP-MS MPI-DING NIST SRM glasses |
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