The Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) laboratory can analyze trace elements and metals in 

• water
• seawater
• soils
• sediments
• sludges
• plant materials
• biological tissues
• food and industrial materials

Who can use the laboratory?

The ICP-MS laboratory is primarily open for all departments at NTNU, but we also take assignments from outside of NTNU.

Researchers from the Department of Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Chemical engineering and Materials science and technology are our most frequent users.

A laboratory with advanced instruments

The analysis of the ICP-MS laboratory offers a simultaneous multi-elemental determination/quantitation within a wide concentration range, from extremely low detection limits at sub ppt (ng/L) to high, ppm (mg/L) levels. 

Only solutions with total solids < 0.5% and free of particles can be inserted directly into an ICP-MS instrument. Our laboratory offers sample preparation with an UltraCLAVE, a microwave digestion system from Milestone.

Additionally, our laboratory offers specialized analyses, including method development.
Our laboratory participates on a regular basis in national and international inter-laboratory comparison tests to validate the accuracy and reliability of our results.

Instruments

The current ICP-MS facilities consist of two tandem ICP-MS instruments (an Agilent - 8800 ICP-MS Triple Quad and a multi-quadrupole, Perkin Elmer’s NexION 5000), microwave digestion system, freeze dryer, acid distillation system, two water purification systems and several fume hoods for general purpose.