Elevated ICP-OES Backgrounds

Send us Fan Mail This week Mike discusses elevated backgrounds in ICP-OES when analyzing high total dissolved solids (TDS) samples such as brines, digests, excipients, salts, and starting materials. TDS increases free electron density in the plasma, producing Bremsstrahlung (braking) radiation and recombination radiation, which raise a broad continuum background across the spectrum. The elevated background degrades signal-to-noise, increases blank standard deviation, and worsens detection lim...