Too many lines, not enough time? CLIP can help you!

In ICP-AES, line-rich spectra are often observed and it is difficult to find analyte lines free of interference from all the matrix or concomitant element lines. This is especially true with matrices such as steel, tungsten, zirconium, precious metals and other complex matrices.

Usually the analyst prepares known solutions, makes profiles for each wavelength at different concentrations of the analyte and concomitant elements and finally selects a line free of interference with adequate sensitivity. This crucial step in method development is long and tedious. It must be conducted with great care because it can greatly influence the accuracy of the results.

HORIBA Jobin Yvon simplifies this step with CLIP (Collection of Line Intensity Profiles), which assists the analyst in the development of methods for high resolution sequential ICP-AES: no more solutions to prepare and no more profiles to acquire. The profile of each line is calculated according to the instrument’s configuration: focal length, slit combination, diffraction grating and order used. Only a few minutes are needed to select lines for every element.

Every user of an ULTIMA family instrument can have the benefit of CLIP to save time and enhance the quality of their results. This module is available beginning in March of 2009 for every instrument of the ULTIMA 2 family currently ordered or already installed.