This month’s column focuses on the fundamentals of quadrupole-based ICP-MS measurement regimes-in particular, the balance between maximizing productivity and optimizing performance. The way the analytical signal is managed in ICP-MS has a direct impact on its multielement characteristics, isotopic capability, detection limits, dynamic range, precision, signal stability and sample throughput-the major strengths that attracted the trace element community to the technique almost 40 years ago. Nowhere is this more important than in the area of peak integration and measurement protocol. To meet such varied application needs, modern ICP-MS instrumentation has to be very flexible if it is to keep up with the increasing demands of its users. Since its commercialization in 1983, approximately 20,000 systems have been installed worldwide to carry out a diverse range of applications, including environmental, geological, semiconductor, biomedical, food, pharmaceuticals, cannabis-hemp, petrochemical, and nuclear applications. Quadrupole-based inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is undoubtedly the fastest growing trace element technique today.
