Plasma Spectrochemistry in Material Sciences – Theory and Recent Applications

This paper provides an overview about state of the art methods in the field of plasma spectrometry and its application in material science. Different types of plasmas with their special characteristics for various applications are described. Indirect analytical methods involving sample digestion and often also analyte/matrix separation prior to analyzing the samples still represent the most important routine methods. Here, plasma optical emission and mass spectrometry are the most frequently used determination techniques with a wide variety of instruments commercially available. To avoid the risk of analyte loss or of contaminations during an often time consuming and laborious sample preparation, the use of techniques with direct solid sampling is considered an attractive alternative for the analysis of many materials. A survey on applications with a special focus on direct solid sampling techniques such as GDMS, GD-OES, LA-ICPMS, ETV-ICPMS, ETV-ICP-OES, DC-Arc is given. Different possible calibration strategies are discussed.