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Nebulizer for the introduction of nanoflows into plasma |
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Mr. Dirk SCHAUMLOFFEL, Mr. Pierre GIUSTI, Mme. Joanna SZPUNAR et Mr. Ryszard LOBINSKI
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TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
This invention can be used in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for trace element analysis in small sample volumes and especially for coupling nanoflow liquid chromatography to ICP-MS in speciation analysis. This invention describes a nebulizer allowing to nebulize in a stable and continuous way a nanoflow lower than 500 nL/min of a liquid effluent, and give the possibility to introduce without dilution sample volumes lower than 10 nL.
While the nebulizer works within a tiny spraychamber of only 3 ml, the sample arriving at optimum flow rate of 200-500 nL/min will be transferred quantitatively into aerosol, providing high sensitivity and excellent precision. The efficient nebulization results in complete evaporation of droplets. Sensitivity is linearly increasing with sample flow rate over the working range and precision is better than 5% RSD for sample flow rates bigger than 200 nl/min. Since the plasma solvent load is orders of magnitude lower than with micro- or conventional nebulizers, introduction of organic solvents is not restricted by plasma stability problems.
The characteristics of the nanoNebulizer can be summarized:
- High stability due to robust construction
- No metal parts in contact with sample flow
- High sensitivity through quantitative nebulization
- Low formation of oxide and doubly charged ions in ICP-MS
- Direct coupling of nanoHPLC with ICP-MS
- Free selection of mobile phase due to reduced solvent load
- Minimized dead-volume for reduced dispersion not restricting the obtainable resolution by nanoHPLC
- High detection power due to improved S/N ratio by very narrow peaks
- Direct comparison with nanoESI-MS possible (similar flow conditions)
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