As a vital resource for human consumption, the quality of drinking water is of utmost importance. To help ensure its quality and safety, method GB/T-5750.6 specifies the procedures and requirements for analyzing metal elements and metalloids in drinking water and their source water. For each element, different analytical methods are provided as applicable, where Section 4.5 outlines the analytical procedure that covers a total of 31 metal elements and metalloids using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
In comparison to other analytical techniques, ICP-MS has the advantages of multi-element detection, low detection limits, high speed of analysis, wide dynamic range, etc. However, it is affected by plasma and matrix-based polyatomic interferences and doubly charged species, which need to be accounted for by applying mathematical corrections and/or using collision/reaction mechanisms. The NexION® 1100 ICP-MS, equipped with Universal Cell Technology (UCT), can be operated in both Collision mode with kinetic energy discrimination (KED) and Reaction mode with dynamic reaction cell (DRC) to tackle polyatomic interferences.
This work demonstrates the ability of the NexION® 1100 ICP-MS to meet and/or exceed the specifications outlined by GB/T-5750.6-2023 for the multi-element analysis of drinking water.