Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry – One Method, Many Applications

Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has contributed to more and more fields of sciences and is routinely applied in geology, environmental and materials sciences and has entered the biomedical research. Some recent applications will be highlighted. Since the incorporation of time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOFMS) some modifications and new developments of aerosol transport systems have been reported allowing to study aerosol formation phenomena and its implications in more detail. The benefits of low-disperson ablation cell over common cells will be emphasized. These fundamental processes are of major importance for fast transient signal recording, e.g. for 2-D and 3-D imaging. Therefore, some work was focused on direct ablation of bulk tissues to investigate the precision of direct removal layer by layer for 3-D image reconstruction. Examples on an organoid sample will be presented. Furthermore, the impact on diagnostics and treatment decisions will be discussed. Latest developments have focused on substituting the well-known argon plasma source by a nitrogen plasma, which substantially reduces Argon interferences and opens new opportunities of operation. Some experiments and their outcomes on such plasma sources in combination with laser ablation and portable laser ablation will be presented and compared to the conventional argon plasma.