Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry最新文献

{"title":"Vortex-assisted reverse-phase dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction for on-site determination of Ti, Cr, Mn, Ni, and Cu in lubricating oil using total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy","authors":"Kuan Wang, Xiao Fu, Fajie Duan, Jiajia Jiang, Jingxin Wu, Rui Wang and Xinxing Wang","doi":"10.1039/D5JA00516G","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D5JA00516G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Critical equipment in transportation vehicles, such as aircraft engines, requires on-site spectral analysis. Total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) coupled with vortex-assisted reverse phase dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (RP-DLLME) is a powerful tool with great potential to achieve low detection limits in the field detection of wear elements in lubricating oil. However, the traditional RP-DLLME method is cumbersome and not suitable for on-site applications. This study proposes a simplified dilution and RP-DLLME procedure that eliminates the centrifugation step and optimizes the extractant collection procedure. The optimized RP-DLLME procedure validated by Plackett–Burman and central composite design methods is as follows: the lubricating oil sample was diluted 20-fold with petroleum ether. Next, 2.9 mL of the diluted sample was added into a 5 mL conical centrifuge tube, followed by 79 µL of 0.1 M HNO<small>₃</small> as the extractant. After vortexing for 3 minutes, let the mixture stand for several seconds to complete phase separation. About 60 µL of the extractant was then taken directly from underneath the organic phase with a pipette. Subsequently, 40 µL of this extractant was added to 10 µL of the standard solution to complete the process of standard addition. Finally, measurements were carried out according to the TXRF aqueous solution measurement protocol. By employing the standard addition method to correct for matrix effects, the relative responses of the analyte elements to the internal standard (Ga) were effectively re-established for the sample matrix, leading to satisfactory quantitative results with the proposed method. The RSD for five replicate measurements for Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni and Cu was between 4% and 12% and recovery rates were between 88% and 112%.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2150-2157"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"PLS regression-assisted LIBS for simultaneous quantitative analysis of five REEs and TREOs in rare earth ores","authors":"Jingzhong Liu, Rongling Zhang, Qiao Li, Xudong Ren, Yu Liu, Yanyan Xu, Tianlong Zhang, Hongsheng Tang and Hua Li","doi":"10.1039/D6JA00092D","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D6JA00092D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Rare earth elements (REEs) are national critical strategic resources, and the rapid and accurate quantification of individual REEs and total rare earth oxides (TREOs) in rare earth ores is of great significance for safeguarding resource security and facilitating industrial regulation. This study adopted a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) combined with partial least squares (PLS) synergistic quantitative analysis strategy to achieve simultaneous and accurate determination of five key REEs (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, and Sm) and TREOs in rare earth ore samples. Pellet samples with concentration gradients were first prepared, and their spectra were collected. After systematically comparing different spectral preprocessing methods, it was found that the hybrid preprocessing method combining standard normal variate and wavelet transform (SNV-WT) could significantly improve calibration model performance. Subsequently, the competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) algorithm was further introduced for variable screening to optimize the calibration model. The finally established SNV-WT-CARS-PLS calibration model demonstrated excellent predictive performance and robustness: the <em>R</em><small>_p</small><small>²</small> for the five REEs and TREOs was all above 0.9345, the MRE<small>_p</small> were all below 0.1309, and the RPD values ranged from 3.9 to 5.5. External validation and 95% confidence interval analysis confirmed the calibration model's reliable predictive capability for different rare earth elements across a wide concentration range. The results indicate that LIBS combined with PLS can provide an efficient, accurate, and rapid quantitative analysis method for rare earth ores with complex compositions and wide concentration spans, offering strong technical support for on-site detection and process optimization in rare earth smelting.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2117-2126"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of a galvo-based novel fs-LA-ICP-MS/MS platform for high-precision elemental analysis with flexible large spots","authors":"Ran Bi, Zhengbin Deng, Yuanyuan Tian, Weibiao Hsu, Fangyue Wang, Can Ge, Chao Wu, Hanbao Chong, Mei Sun and Fang Huang","doi":"10.1039/D6JA00129G","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D6JA00129G","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Conventional femtosecond laser ablation (fs-LA) systems offer low thermal effects but are historically constrained by small spot sizes and depth-dependent fractionation, limiting their sensitivity for ultra-trace analysis and bulk representativeness. In this work, we evaluate a novel galvanometer-scanning fs-LA system coupled with a triple-quadrupole ICP-MS/MS to overcome these limitations. We introduced an empirical ablation efficiency factor (<em>R</em>) to systematically optimize complex scanning parameters—including divider, scan (Mark) speed, and jump speed, <em>etc</em>.—establishing three distinct ablation protocols: galvo pulse, continuous, and line scan modes. A key methodological advancement involves the synergy between unconstrained large ablation-area (up to 500 µm) and the electronic dilution capability of the ICP-MS/MS. For NIST 614, BIR-1G and iron meteorites, the combination of a larger ablation-area and the extended dynamic range of the ICP-MS enabled analytical errors for ∼10 ppb concentrations to be constrained within ±20%. This study demonstrates that the galvanometer-based fs-LA-ICP-MS/MS platform substantially expands the dynamic range of <em>in situ</em> analysis and, to some extent, delivers trace-element detection capability comparable to that of SF-ICP-MS, while maintaining accurate quantification of elements spanning several orders of magnitude in concentration.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2158-2169"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A MnO2–Co3O4–CaO catalytic pyrolysis method for mercury isotope analysis in marine sediments","authors":"Yu Lei, Guangyi Sun, Chenmeng Yang, Xinyu Li and Xinbin Feng","doi":"10.1039/D5JA00515A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D5JA00515A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Mercury (Hg) is a widely distributed toxic pollutant, and its biogeochemical cycling in the environment has attracted considerable attention. Marine sediments are important archives for reconstructing historical and modern Hg fluxes, and Hg stable isotope analysis is a useful tool for tracing their sources and transformation processes. However, the complex matrices of marine sediments pose significant challenges for current sample preparation methods, such as dual-tube furnace pyrolysis, which often results in low and unstable Hg recoveries, along with significant matrix interference, leading to potential biases in Hg concentration and isotope measurements. In this study, we propose a catalytic pyrolysis method that can improve the accuracy and precision of Hg analysis in marine sediments. A composite catalyst consisting of manganese dioxide (MnO<small>₂</small>), cobalt(<small>III</small>) oxide (Co<small>₃</small>O<small>₄</small>), and calcium oxide (CaO) was applied, with optimized temperature ramping and catalyst ratios. Under optimal conditions (50 minutes of heating to 950 °C and 40 minutes of holding, with a catalyst mixture of 70% MnO<small>₂</small>, 20% Co<small>₃</small>O<small>₄</small>, and 10% CaO, nearly 100% Hg recovery was achieved across various sediment types. The method also reduced matrix interference from elements such as tellurium (Te) by more than an order of magnitude. The reliability and accuracy of this method were validated by recoveries and Hg isotope analyses using standard reference materials, natural samples, and mixed samples, providing critical support for tracing mercury sources and reconstructing mercury cycling from marine sediment archives. This approach provides valuable support for tracing Hg sources and reconstructing Hg cycles from marine sediment archives.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2097-2106"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of a plasma injection probe for deep tissue drug analysis","authors":"Yuya Shimizu, Masaya Tahara, Akane Yaida, Yukiko Moriiwa, Toshihiro Takamatsu, Atsushi Shoji and Akitoshi Okino","doi":"10.1039/D5JA00495K","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D5JA00495K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Anticancer drugs and other pharmaceuticals achieve maximal therapeutic efficacy with minimal side effects when delivered to the target site at an appropriate concentration. Accordingly, quantifying the amount of drug reaching the target tissue is essential for evaluating pharmacological effectiveness. However, direct measurement of a drug concentration within specific tissues <em>in vivo</em> remains technically challenging. In this study, a plasma injection probe incorporating an ultra-small plasma source inside a syringe needle was developed, and its fundamental performance was evaluated using 4-isopropylantipyrine as a model analyte. First, an ultra-small plasma source with an outer diameter of approximately 700 µm, suitable for integration into an injection needle, was fabricated. Plasma irradiation of a biological tissue-mimicking sample surface demonstrated that helium yielded the highest signal intensity among the tested plasma generation gases. In addition, the introduction of 2% hydrogen further enhanced analytical sensitivity. The measured gas temperature was approximately 22–23 °C, indicating suitability for potential <em>in vivo</em> application. Subsequently, the plasma injection probe was inserted into a biological tissue-mimicking sample to evaluate its capability to detect drugs within the sample interior. When the plasma gas flow rate was varied, the signal intensity reached a maximum at 100 mL min<small>⁻¹</small>, and the limit of detection was approximately 10 ppm. Furthermore, the depth resolution of the plasma injection probe was determined to be 0.4 mm.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2060-2067"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2026/ja/d5ja00495k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hybrid fuzzy-transformer-CNN network combined with fs-LA-SIBS for accurate classification of magnesium alloy components","authors":"Xiaoyong He, Chunhui Huang and Zhenman Gao","doi":"10.1039/D6JA00006A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D6JA00006A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Accurate classification of magnesium alloys is frequently compromised by the intrinsic complexity of plasma emission spectra, characterized by subtle peak overlap between alloying elements and minor Mg emission lines as well as high background noise. In this work, a femtosecond laser-ablation spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy (fs-LA-SIBS) technique was developed and coupled with a novel Hybrid Fuzzy-Transformer-CNN (HybridTFNet) to achieve high-fidelity magnesium alloy component classification. The fs-LA-SIBS configuration leverages the dual energy input of femtosecond ablation and spark discharge, enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio by over 40% compared with conventional laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Taking 190-dimensional preprocessed one-dimensional spectral feature vectors as input, the HybridTFNet model innovatively integrates three functional modules: fuzzy logic for adaptive plasma noise suppression, transformer for modeling long-range wavelength dependencies in spectral signals, and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for extracting local spectral feature patterns. This multimodal architecture effectively mitigates the heterogeneity of spectral signals caused by microalloying element content differences and subtle peak overlap of alloying elements in complex multi-element spectra. Experimental validation on five certified standard magnesium alloys showed that the proposed method achieved an average classification accuracy of 99.63% with a near-perfect micro-AUC of 0.9998. These results confirm that the integration of discharge-enhanced fs-LA-SIBS with the physically interpretable HybridTFNet provides a robust and efficient approach for rapid qualitative classification of magnesium alloy components, which holds great potential for industrial alloy quality control.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2037-2049"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of domain mixing on high-precision 142Nd/144Nd measurements using thermal-ionization mass spectrometry","authors":"Thomas Rouyer, Régis Doucelance, Maud Boyet, Marion Garçon and Delphine Auclair","doi":"10.1039/D6JA00114A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D6JA00114A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The short-lived <small>¹⁴⁶</small>Sm–<small>¹⁴²</small>Nd systematics provide a powerful tool for reconstructing the early history of the solar system and Earth. However, variations in the <small>¹⁴²</small>Nd/<small>¹⁴⁴</small>Nd isotope ratio are extremely small and require high-precision measurements. Current analytical precision typically ranges from 3 to 5 ppm, which is sufficient for the study of very old samples but limits the ability to resolve isotope variations in more recent samples where <small>¹⁴²</small>Nd/<small>¹⁴⁴</small>Nd differences are smaller in magnitude. To improve both the internal and external precision of <small>¹⁴²</small>Nd/<small>¹⁴⁴</small>Nd measurements, we conducted extended thermal-ionization mass spectrometry runs lasting 16 hours, increasing the Nd load on rhenium filaments from 750 ng to 1000 ng and thus doubling the number of measurement cycles in our 4-line dynamic method from 540 to 1080. Our dataset consists of 58 JNdi-1 standard analyses, including 44 extended 1080-cycle runs, 4 extended 1620-cycle runs, and 10 ‘conventional’ 540-cycle runs, acquired over 11 analytical sessions spanning 18 months. Unexpected correlations were observed for static- and dynamic-corrected Nd isotope ratios, resulting in degraded external precision compared with the expected 3–5 ppm. Monte Carlo modeling and scanning electron microscopy analysis of Nd loads indicate that domain mixing is the cause of these correlations. This effect arises from the mixing of sub-domains within the load that undergoe distinct fractionation trends, leading to an overestimation of the <small>¹⁴²</small>Nd/<small>¹⁴⁴</small>Nd isotope ratio. Corrected for domain mixing, our 1080-cycle dataset yields an overall external precision of 2.4 ppm. This improved precision enables the detection of small isotopic variations that were previously unresolvable.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2211-2226"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Blank correction in IDMS: possible pitfalls","authors":"Axel Pramann and Olaf Rienitz","doi":"10.1039/D6JA00070C","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D6JA00070C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The blank correction in isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) is investigated using the double IDMS exact matching technique. The effects of different amounts of blanks in the sample, reference and spike solutions are simulated for the determination of the mass fractions of Pb and Cu. The simulations are compared with and confirmed by the respective interlaboratory CCQM key comparisons. The most accurate results are obtained when the blend bx of the sample and spike and blend bz of the reference and spike are treated in the same way (digestion, matrix separation, choice of the same solvent, amounts of sample, reference and spike, <em>etc.</em>) starting from sample preparation. When applying this procedure, it is not necessary to subtract the blank subsequently. A similar “blank-matching” approach has previously been reported by Pagliano, Mester, and Meija (<em>Anal. Chem.</em>, 2015, <strong>87</strong>: 10724–10727). In the present study, it is shown that in the case where exact matching is applied, the subsequent blank subtraction is not only superfluous but also yields a systematically wrong result with a bias of up to ten times the uncertainty depending on the blank concentration. If the procedural blank is “small”, a subsequent subtraction yields a result similar to that of the procedure presented in this work. This small effect has obviously hidden a systematic bias in the past. By varying the mass fraction of the blank <em>w</em><small>_bl</small> in the range 0.0001 µg g<small>⁻¹</small> &lt; <em>w</em><small>_bl</small> &lt; 0.0025 µg g<small>⁻¹</small> for Pb, a subsequent blank subtraction yields a significantly biased result of <em>w</em><small>_x</small> from −0.57% to −14%, exceeding the associated standard uncertainty <em>u</em>(<em>w</em><small>_x</small>) at <em>w</em><small>_bl</small> ≈ 0.0004 µg g<small>⁻¹</small>.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2127-2136"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2026/ja/d6ja00070c?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A titanium(iii) chloride based approach for accurate measurement of sulfate oxygen isotope composition","authors":"Guangliang Wu, Wenjing Liu, Hao Dong, Jiangyi Zhang and Zhifang Xu","doi":"10.1039/D5JA00503E","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D5JA00503E","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Accurate determination of sulfate oxygen isotope composition (δ<small>¹⁸</small>O–SO<small>₄</small><small>²⁻</small>) is critical for constraining its sources and transformation pathways, yet the accuracy is often compromised by nitrate, which commonly co-precipitates with sulfate during sample preparation. Here we propose a simplified and efficient approach to obtain high-purity BaSO<small>₄</small> through nitrate reduction using titanium(<small>III</small>) chloride (TiCl<small>₃</small>), thereby eliminating the impurity interference in the measurement of δ<small>¹⁸</small>O–SO<small>₄</small><small>²⁻</small>. Experiments using nitrate-doped sulfate solutions and natural samples indicate that complete nitrate removal was achieved when the Ti<small>³⁺</small>/NO<small>₃</small><small>⁻</small> mass ratio was 20 ± 1.4. The δ<small>¹⁸</small>O–SO<small>₄</small><small>²⁻</small> values of treated K<small>₂</small>SO<small>₄</small>–KNO<small>₃</small> mixtures were consistent with those of pure K<small>₂</small>SO<small>₄</small> solution, suggesting that the reduction reaction did not affect δ<small>¹⁸</small>O–SO<small>₄</small><small>²⁻</small> measurements. Moreover, the δ<small>¹⁸</small>O–SO<small>₄</small><small>²⁻</small> values remained stable with increasing Ti<small>³⁺</small> mass, excluding the possible alteration of the oxygen-isotope composition by complexation. The fact that δ<small>¹⁸</small>O values remained consistent for natural samples regardless of dilution with ultrapure water further suggests that no significant oxygen isotope exchange occurred between sulfate and water. Overall, the consistency of sulfate δ<small>¹⁸</small>O values between treated and un-treated solutions, as well as natural samples, demonstrated that the proposed method effectively removed nitrate from sulfate solutions and yielded accurate sulfate δ<small>¹⁸</small>O values. This advancement provides a streamlined and reliable approach for sulfate O isotope analysis, with broad applicability to similar environmental and geochemical studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2181-2188"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimization of an infrared-heated sample introduction system for single-particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis of metal-labelled ion-exchange polymer microparticles","authors":"Zichao Zhou, Matthias Schmitt, Andreas Seubert and Diane Beauchemin","doi":"10.1039/D6JA00095A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/D6JA00095A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICPMS) is increasingly employed for quantification of microplastics (MPs). However, routine analysis of polymer MPs remains constrained by the poor transport efficiency (TE) of conventional pneumatic nebulization systems and by limited sensitivity for carbon-based detection. In this study, an infrared (IR)-heated modified baffled cyclonic spray chamber was used for spICPMS, and an electrostatic Ba<small>²⁺</small> labelling strategy was introduced to enable sensitive, particle-by-particle characterization of functionalized polymer MPs. For 4.5 µm sulfonated polystyrene/divinylbenzene ion-exchange MPs, IR heating (135–150 °C) increased the number of detected events approximately 20-fold relative to a Scott double-pass chamber, yielding a TE of 60 ± 7%. For 10 µm MPs, 11% TE resulted under optimized conditions, extending the practical upper size range. For unlabelled MPs monitored <em>via</em><small>¹³</small>C<small>⁺</small>, the IR-heated system increased event counts by greater than 20-fold (from 170 ± 40 to 4300 ± 600 for 4.5 µm MPs; from 7.0 ± 4 to 350 ± 50 for 10 µm MPs). Ba<small>²⁺</small> labelling of sulfonate sites provided accurate size estimates (4.2 ± 2.4 µm and 10.3 ± 3.6 µm) consistent with independent scanning electron microscopy measurements, demonstrating a potential characterization method using functional-group-associated heteroatom content at the single-particle level.</p>","PeriodicalId":81,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry","volume":" 6","pages":" 2074-2080"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2026/ja/d6ja00095a?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148202838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}