Patent ID: 9711339
Date: 2017-07-18
CPC Classifications: H01J

Claim:
1. In a plasma ion source mass spectrometry apparatus wherein a sample to be measured is supplied into plasma to ionize elements in the sample, a beam of the generated ions is introduced into a mass spectrometer through a collision/reaction cell, and ionized elements are separated and detected according to mass-to-charge ratio, a process for automatically creating a mass spectrometry method, the process comprising the steps of: semi-quantitatively measuring at least all elements in the sample that affect the setting of measurement conditions; determining a plasma condition based on the total concentration of the semi-quantitatively measured elements; for each of the semi-quantitatively measured elements, estimating signal strengths of the element and interference components in the sample and, based on the resultant estimates, estimating the concentration of the element; and based on the estimated signal strengths of the elements and the interference components and the estimated concentrations of the elements, creating at least one mass spectrometry method including at least one of: (1) a plasma condition; (2) a combination of internal standard elements used for correction at the time of quantitating an element to be measured; (3) a tuning condition for the collision/reaction cell; (4) a mass-to-charge ratio used in a mass spectrometer; and (5) an integration time used in the mass spectrometer.