Bench Boost by Inorganic Ventures
Join our host and Inorganic Ventures Technical Director, Mike Booth, as he sparks insightful conversations with our panel of experts in Bench Boost, your go-to podcast for analytical chemistry enthusiasts. Together, they explore the realm of ICP, sharing tips and tricks and diving deep into all things analytical chemistry.
Bench Boost by Inorganic Ventures
Elevated ICP-OES Backgrounds
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This week Mike discusses elevated backgrounds in ICP-OES when analyzing high total dissolved solids (TDS) samples such as brines, digests, excipients, salts, and starting materials. TDS increases free electron density in the plasma, producing Bremsstrahlung (braking) radiation and recombination radiation, which raise a broad continuum background across the spectrum. The elevated background degrades signal-to-noise, increases blank standard deviation, and worsens detection limits, especially for elements with poor ICP-OES sensitivity. Mitigation approaches include dilution, matrix-matched calibration or standard additions when dilution isn’t feasible.
