Development of methods to improve the robustness of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry while also improving detection limits

许多实验室每天都要对大量的样品进行准确的分析，从服务实验室，如活化实验室有限公司（Actlabs），其生计是进行分析，到政府机构（如加拿大食品检验局，加拿大卫生部和加拿大环境部，仅举几例），监测食品，药品，水等，以确保我们的安全。然而，用于此目的的仪器的局限性往往使分析复杂化，需要额外的步骤，这不可避免地减少了每天可以分析的样品数量。此外，现有的仪器几乎不能检测到一些感兴趣的元素。女王大学化学系和Actlabs合作研究的目标是开发实用的、易于实现的方法，绕过这些仪器的主要限制，应用于工业，而不是在学术界孤立的更深奥的方法。为此，将优化或开发几种方法，以(1)使测量在很大程度上独立于样品组成；(2)减少可在各种样品中测量的最低含金属物种数量。这项合作将通过新的基础和应用研究方向，为学生提供工资支持，以及发表基础研究成果，使女王大学受益。Actlabs将受益于新的分析技术，他们可以成功地使用更有效的分析地球化学样品，更短的周转时间，这应该会吸引更多的客户。加拿大将受益于采矿项目开发速度的提高和成本的降低。采矿和勘探公司在开发过程的每一步都需要分析结果，没有这些结果就无法进行下一步。因此，减少周转时间将加快矿山开发。由于加拿大国内生产总值（GDP）的很大一部分来自采矿业（2012年7月报告的570亿美元），这将对加拿大的GDP产生巨大影响。

Many laboratories have to perform the accurate analysis of numerous samples everyday, from service laboratories, such as Activation Laboratories Ltd (Actlabs) whose livelihood is to perform analyses, to government agencies (such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada and Environment Canada to name a few), which monitor food, drugs, water, etc. for our safety. However, limitations of the instruments that are used for this purpose often complicate the analyses by requiring additional steps, which unavoidably decrease the number of samples that can be analyzed each day. Furthermore, available instruments can barely detect several elements of interest. The goal of this collaborative research effort between the Department of Chemistry at Queen's University and Actlabs is to develop practical, easily implementable means of circumventing the main limitations of these instruments that could be applied to industry, as opposed to more esoteric approaches that remain isolated in academia. To this end, several approaches will be optimized or developed to (1) make the measurement largely independent of sample composition and (2) decrease the lowest quantity of metal-containing species that can be measured in a variety of samples. This collaboration will benefit Queen's through new basic and applied research directions, salary support for students, and publication of basic research results. Actlabs will benefit from new analytical techniques that they can successfully use for more effective analysis of geochemical samples, with shorter turnaround time, which should attract more clients. Canada will benefit from the increased speed and reduced cost at which mining projects can develop. Mining and exploration companies indeed require analytical results at every step through the development process and cannot proceed to the next step without these results. Reducing the turnaround time will thus speed up mine development. As a large part of Canada's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is from the mining sector (57 billion reported in July 2012), this will have a tremendous effect on Canadian GDP.