Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) Instrumentation, Analysis, Strengths, Limitations, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Applications

Ihsan Mohammed Hassan Kadhim, Tabarak Taha Miteb

Authors

Ihsan Mohammed Hassan Kadhim, Tabarak Taha Miteb Department of Medical Device Technology Engineering, Bilad Alrafidain University College, Iraq

Keywords:

ICP-MS, Instrumentation, Analysis, Strengths, Limitations, Pharmaceutical Applications

Abstract

An argon gas plasma is delivered to an aerosol created by pumping a pre-prepared liquid containing the analyte through a nebulizer in the simplest type of ICP-MS. Plasma with temperatures ranging from around 5500 to 6500 K is hot enough to atomize and ionise nearly every element, even the ones with the strongest ionisation potentials. A mass spectrometer can be used to segregate the analyte ions into their mass to charge (m/z) ratio and detect them after guiding the ions into it using electrostatic ion optic components. For the most part, ionisation is very efficient, therefore the number of identified ions for a given element should be considered a good indicator of its concentration in the sample. Launched in 1983, the technique has progressed from a single-detector, quadrupole mass spectrometer-equipped instrument to modern time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometers that can measure the full mass spectrum simultaneously, as well as single-and double-focusing magnetic sector instruments that can measure isotope ratios with high precision thanks to single- or multicollector detection systems. Though advancements in pharmaceutical, biomedical, and life sciences are crucial, medical science as a whole is important for everyone. Additional research is being conducted in these areas to ascertain, with remarkable precision, the concentrations and amounts of organic molecules and inorganic elements to be utilised in pharmaceuticals, including nucleotides, peptides and proteins containing sulphur and phosphorus, and so on. An innovative and potent method for elemental and isotope analysis, inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been available since 1980. It allows for the simultaneous examination of the vast majority of the elements listed in the periodic table, as well as an extraordinarily broad spectrum of elements. It can also be used for mass-to-charge ratio measurements of isotope ratios and for qualitative, quantitative, and semiquantitative analysis. When it comes to biological and pharmaceutical inorganic impurity quantification, ICP-MS has lately become the gold standard.

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