Determination of Forty Two Major and Trace Elements in USGS and NIST SRM Glasses by Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Forty two major (Na, Mg, Ti and Mn) and trace elements covering the mass range from Li to U in three USGS basalt glass reference materials BCR-2G, BHVO-2G and BIR-1G were determined using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Calibration was performed using NIST SRM 610 in conjunction with internal standardisation using Ca. Determinations were also made on NIST SRM 612 and 614 as well as NIST SRM 610 as unknown samples, and included forty five major (Al and Na) and trace elements. Relative standard deviation (RSD) of determinations was below 10% for most elements in all the glasses under investigation. Consistent exceptions were Sn and Sb in BCR-2G, BHVO-2G and BIR-1G. For BCR-2G, BHVO-2G and BIR-1G, clear negative correlations on a logarithmic scale exist between RSD and concentration for elements lower than 1500 μg g-1 with logarithmic correlation coefficients between -0.75 and -0.86. There is also a clear trend of increasing RSD with decreasing concentration from NIST SRM 610 through SRM 612 to SRM 614. These suggest that the difference in the scatter of apparent element concentrations is not due to chemical heterogeneity but reflects analytical uncertainty. It is concluded that all these glasses are, overall, homogeneous on a scale of 60 μm. Our first results on BHVO-2G and BIR-1G showed that they generally agreed with BHVO-2/BHVO-1 and BIR-1 within 10% relative. Exceptions were Nb, Ta and Pb in BHVO-2G, which were 14-45% lower than reference values for BHVO-2 and BHVO-1. Be, Ni, Zn, Y, Zr, Nb, Sn, Sb, Gd, Tb, Er, Pb and U in BIR-1G were also exceptions. However, of these elements, Be, Nb, Sn, Sb, Gd, Tb, Pb and U gave results that were consistent within an uncertainty of 2s between our data and BIR-1 reference values. Results on NIST SRM 612 agreed well with published data, except for Mg and Sn. This was also true for elements with m/z 85 (Rb) in the case of NIST SRM 614. The good agreement between measured and reference values for Na and Mg in BCR-2G, BHVO-2G and BIR-1G, and for Al and Na in NIST SRM 610, 612 and 614 up to concentrations of at least several weight percent (which were possible to analyse due to the dynamic range of 108) indicates the suitability of this technique for major, minor and trace element determinations.

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