Data Processing Strategies for the Improved Analysis of Solder by Electrothermal Vaporization (ETV) Coupled to ICPOES

Applications of electrothermal vaporization coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ETV-ICPOES) may require offline, and often manual, processing for data compilation and optimization.Techniques for data processing have traditionally applied internal standardization and some form of correction (e.g., blank subtraction) to compensate for positive bias from the background.However, a blank may not always be easily obtained in applications of solidsampling research, and in some cases, degrade detection limits and signal integrations.In this work, several data processing techniques are evaluated, after point-by-point internal standardization with an Ar emission line, for the sensitive and accurate analysis of solder by ETV-ICPOES: peak area with average blank subtraction from empty graphite boats (Technique A), peak area with integrated background correction (Technique B), and peak height with averaged background correction (Technique C).Despite being the simplest to implement, subtracting the average background signal from the height of the peak produced during the vaporization step, i.e., Technique C, systematically yields the lowest detection limits without compromise in accuracy or precision.