The application of collision/reaction cell for detection of impurity elements in rare earth metals by ICP-MS analysis

The article discusses the application of a collision/reaction cell for suppression of oxide, hydroxide, and hydride spectral aliases occurring during ICP-MS analysis of Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, and Er. The influence of the parameters of cell operation on the degree of interference suppression is studied. The application of the collision/reaction cell makes it possible to decrease the values of background concentrations caused by hydride matrix ions by more than two orders of magnitude. The detection limits (DLs) of impurity elements are estimated; their detection is hindered by polyatomic matrix ions in the aforementioned rare earth metals. The values of DLs range from 5.2 × 10^–3% for detection of Tb in neodymium to 3 × 10^–6% for detection of Ta in erbium. For the remaining detected impurity elements without spectral aliasing, DL = 10^–6–10^–7%.