Abundance and Impact of Doubly Charged Polyatomic Argon Interferences in ICPMS Spectra.

Doubly charged molecular ions of alkaline earth metals and argon could be identified as spectral interferences in an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. These molecular ions were found to occur at abundances reaching about 10(-4) relative to the alkaline earth atomic ion abundances. They can thus substantially affect ultratrace analyses and, when present at similar concentration as the analyte elements, also isotope ratio measurements.

Mass Spectrometric Observation of Doubly Charged Alkaline-Earth Argon Ions.

Doubly charged diatomic ions MAr(2+) where M=Mg, Ca, Sr or Ba have been observed by mass spectrometry with an inductively coupled plasma ion source. Abundance ratios are quite high, 0.1 % for MgAr(2+) , 0.