Basic Training 4th Annual ICP Conference

Designing a Standard

• Chemical stability • Clean/minimal impurities (starting materials) • Matrix considerations

Always be aware of contaminants associated with the analytes of interest. Some are more common across the board, while others are element- specific.

Starting materials

• Common contaminants – Al, Ca, Mg, K, Na, Zn • Geochemical twins – Zr and Hf, Nb and Ta, Mo and W • Rare Earth elements – these are typically found among each other (Yb can be especially difficult to determine on the ICP-MS in the presence Gd due to oxides)

Monazite; contains La, Ce among others