Home > Community > Why can't carbon and nitrogen be detected in ICP-MS and ICP-OES techniques?
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Kasturi Khatun

Why can't carbon and nitrogen be detected in ICP-MS and ICP-OES techniques?

Arega Tayu  Follow

As an aside, the lack of carbon and nitrogen detection by ICP-OES does not propose practical problems because there are other methods to detect them. Combustion analysis is one such alternative.

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Dave Calhoun  Follow

As you say, air is allowed to enter the plasma. Air consists primarily of $\ce{N2}$ and $\ce{O2}$, and would clearly interfere with any oxygen or nitrogen in the sample. The problem is not that ICP-MS or -OES cannot detect them, the problem is air.

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