A Comparative Study of Five Reference Materials and the Lombard Meteorite for the Determination of the Platinum‐Group Elements and Gold by LA‐ICP‐MS

Abstract

A range of independently characterised reference materials (RMs) for LA‐ICP‐MS, used for the determination of the platinum‐group elements (PGE) and Au in a sulfide matrix, were analysed and compared: 8b, PGE‐A, NiS‐3, Po727‐T1, Po724‐T and the Lombard meteorite. The newly developed RM NiS‐3 was used as the RM for the calibration of all LA‐ICP‐MS analyses and the measured concentrations of the other RMs compared against their published concentrations. This data were also used to assess the consistency of concentrations calibrated against the different RMs. It was found that Po727‐T1 and 8b produced results that were comparable, within uncertainty, for all elements. Po727‐T1 also produced consistent results with NiS‐3 for all elements. All other RMs showed differences for some elements, especially Ru in Po724‐T, and Os, Ir and Au in PGE‐A. The homogeneity of the PGE and Au in each RM was assessed, by comparing the precision of multiple LA‐ICP‐MS spot analyses with the average uncertainty of the signal. Po724‐T, Po727‐T1 and the Lombard meteorite were found to be homogeneous for all elements, but 8b, PGE‐A and NiS‐3 were heterogeneous for some elements. This is the first direct comparison between a range of independently characterised PGE and Au LA‐ICP‐MS RMs.

Mobility of gold during metamorphism of the Dalradian in Scotland

“…This allows for the quantification of a variety of trace elements on selected spots. Used standards include Ni 3 (Gilbert et al, 2012) for Au, trans_1 (Wohlgemuth-Ueberwasser et al, 2014) for As, Sb, Se and Te, and MASS-1 (USGS, Wilson et al, 2002) 202 Hg, and 208 Pb. Calibration was performed using 56 Fe as internal standard as derived stoichiometrically.…”

Analysis of Platinum Group Elements in Environmental Samples: A Review

“…Alternatively, Te co-precipitation for Pt detection (Zereini et al 2012) and Hg co-precipitated for Pd (Alsenz et al 2009;Zereini et al 2012) were described in combination with ID-ICP-MS determination in airborne particulate matter. A direct method for PGE quantification in solid samples is laser ablation ICP-MS. Well homogenized solid rock samples can successfully be analyzed as shown by Gilbert et al (2013) and Osbahr et al (2013) …”

Trace Element Analysis of Minerals in Magmatic-Hydrothermal Ores by Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry: Approaches and Opportunities

“…The reader is referred to Reference [33] for a more extensive list of LA-ICP-MS reference materials. Although there are, to our knowledge, few published examples of comparative cross-laboratory or cross-standard testing (e.g., [34]), several publications have offered insights into the relative analytical accuracy that can be achieved. The use of multiple reference materials is encouraged [35].…”