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HP4500 ICP-MS

Our HP (now Agilent) 4500+ ICP-MS is a quadrupole mass spectrometer. All tuning parameters are software controlled and the software has the ability to monitor quality control parameters and re-calibrate, if needed, during a long sequence.

A Cetac ASX-510 auto-sampler is housed in a HEPA filtered enclosure and can handle 7, 15 and 50 mL sample tubes. Integrated peristaltic pumps handle variable speed uptake and automated dilutions at 5, 10, and 20 X. Our standard configuration is an all Teflon PFA nebulizer with a quartz, Scott-type, spray chamber. The 4500 maintains the temperature of the spray chamber at 2 degrees C. The plasma can be operated from 900 to 1400 W forward power, and is typically operated at 1250W. The Shieldtorch option can be employed to reduce interference from polyatomics and narrows the kinetic energy distribution of the ions. Typical Argon gas flow conditions are 15 L/min plasma gas, 1 L/min auxiliary gas, 0.8 L/min nebulization gas, and 0.3 L/min make-up gas.

We use Nickel sampling and skimmer cones. Once inside the vacuum region, the positive ion beam is exctracted from the expanding jet, focussed, offset by 1 cm to remove photons and residual neutrals, and then re-focussed into a unit mass resolution quadrupole mass filter. Detection by the electron multiplier is by pulse counting at low beam intensities and by current integration at high beam intensities (> 3.0 MHz).

Many metals can be analyzed in the low part-per-billion (ng/mL) region and slightly below and most metals can be analyzed to tens of parts-per-million (ug/mL). Consult with GeoAnalytical Lab staff about your particular metals and sample matrices before designing an experiment.

GeoAnalytical Lab staff will help you design your first experiment and teach you how startup, tune, validate and shutdown the instrument the first time you run samples. Be sure to allow plenty of lead time for planning your experiment and scheduling your training session. After training, you are expected to be self-sufficient for routine operation.