Non-Specific Calibration Combined with Helium Collision Mode for Elemental Screening

Elemental analysis labs often measure only a small number of elements; for example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Elemental Analysis Manual (EAM) regulatory method for food analysis by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (EAM 4.7) specifies only 12 trace elements. ICP-MS is a fast, multielement technique that can measure nearly every element in the periodic table and cover a concentration range from ultratrace to major elements. While labs rarely need to quantify all 75 or so elements that ICP-MS can measure, they may benefit from acquiring a more complete picture of the total elemental content of each sample. The amount of useful information that can be extracted from the ICP-MS mass spectrum is dramatically increased when helium (He) collision mode is used to minimize common spectral overlaps. Some ICP-MS instruments can perform a fast, He mode screening acquisition for each sample, combined with non-specific calibration to give semiquantitative concentrations for “all elements”. He mode screening gives access to confirmatory isotopes and detects elements that were not included in the quantitative analysis, providing valuable additional insight into each sample’s composition.