Grand-ICP Atomic emission spectrometers with argon inductively coupled plasma
Authors:   LLC “VMK-Optoelektronika”, Pelipasov O.V. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Labusov V.A. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Skorobogatov D.N. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saushkin M.S. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Komin O.V. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Selunin D.O. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Zarubin I.A. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Semenov Z.V. ,   Institute of Automation and Electrometry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Trunova V.A. ,   LLC “VMK-Optoelektronika”
Published: February 2025

The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the first commercially available argon inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometer. Since then, ICP atomic emission spectrometry has become one of the most widely used analytical methods in the world. ICP is obtained using semiconductor or vacuum tube generators with frequency of 27.12 or 40.68 MHz. The emission spectra of the analyzed solutions are recorded using spectral instruments with crossed dispersion (echelle spectrometer) with a matrix detector or with polychromators built according to the Paschen-Runge scheme, assemblies of detector lines. To solve the problem of import substitution, serial production of Russian atomic emission spectrometer Grand-ICP (No. 89108-23 in the state register of measuring instruments of the Russian Federation) has been developed and launched; and the aim of this work is presenting analytical characteristics of this instrument.
ICP is obtained using a self-excited RF generator (40.68 MHz) based on a generator triode. Plasma is maintained in a vertically installed three-stream semi-dismountable quartz burner. The spectral device based on the Paschen-Runge scheme records the spectrum simultaneously in the range from 160 to 780 nm using BLPP-4000 detector arrays with the resolution of 15 pm in the range of 160–190 nm, 8 pm for 190–350 nm, and 25 pm for 350–780 nm. The spectrometer implements axial, radial and double plasma viewing.
Grand-ICP spectrometer is not inferior to the foreign analogues in its analytical characteristics: elements detection limits (3σ) ≤ 1 μg/l; long-term stability of analytical signals is characterized by an RSD (relative standard deviation) of less than 2 % for analytes and less than 1 % for Ar lines; the linearity range of the calibration dependencies is more than 106 when using a double plasma viewing and more than 107 when using multiple lines. Grand-ICP spectrometer was successfully tested by employees of laboratories of industrial enterprises in the Russian Federation and in scientific institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.