Acid Digestions of Inorganic Samples

Overview

A liquid that is atomized using a nebulizer is the most reliable and convenient form of sample introduction to the inductively coupled plasma. If your sample is a liquid or soluble in a liquid then the sample preparation is relatively simple. If the sample is not soluble in a solvent then sample preparation techniques such as acid digestion, ashing, or fusion are required. The solvent used exclusively for the preparation techniques to be discussed in this section is water.

Acid digestions have the advantage of retaining 'volatile' analytes (reflux condenser is needed for some trace elements) and the disadvantage of being tedious when large sample sizes are required. They are ideal if the sample size is < 1 gram. The acid that this guide will focus upon is nitric acid (HNO₃). Nitric acid is popular because of its chemical compatibility, oxidizing ability, availability, purity, and low cost.

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