Date: 15 - 26 July 2024
Duration: 2 weeks
Venue: NMISA Training Center, Building 4, CSIR Campus, Pretoria
Course Objectives:
Supporting sustainable agricultural practices, ecosystem health and exports through accurate measurement.
Since the introduction of Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICPOES) in 1974, and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in 1980, these techniques have revolutionised the simultaneous analysis of major, trace and ultra-trace elements in a wide range of sample matrices.
Currently, these instruments are used extensively in diverse areas such as mining, manufacturing, food, and environmental testing. Through a combination of various digestion techniques, samples ranging from high fat foods (such as processed meat, butter) to refractory materials (such as automotive catalysts, ores, soils), can be dissolved, and their elemental content reliably determined. These measurements can be performed with very high accuracy and precision.
This workshop will provide an overview of the basic operating principles of both ICP-OES and ICPMS, focussing on sample preparation, instrument set-up (impact of sample introduction systems), method development, validation as well as quality control aspects. Additionally, an overview will be provided on basic maintenance and trouble shooting. Participants will be introduced to recent developments, such as elemental speciation.