Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for Forensic Glass Analysis: Comparison of 213nm-Nanosecond and 266nm-Femtosecond Laser Ablation

The analytical performance of 213nm-ns and 266nm-fs laser ablation systems coupled to ICP-MS was studied for the analysis of glass. The comparison was based on the combined accuracy (bias) and precision resulting from the application of different quantification approaches, including single and multi-point calibrations with and without use of an internal standard. The analysis of a reference standard NIST 1831 was treated as an "unknown" sample, and standard reference material NIST 612 and standard glasses FGS01 and FGS02 were used as external calibration sources. The results demonstrate that both 213nm-ns and 266nm-fs laser ablation ICP-MS systems provided comparable performance in terms of accuracy and precision. It also was found that the use of an internal standard was necessary to achieve accurate results for the analysis of glass by both laser ablation systems. The quantification approach using FGS01 as a single calibration source and the multi-point calibration approach was determined to provide the best overall results. In addition, 266nm-fs laser ablation ICP-MS provided higher sensitivity (lower limits of detection) for each of the elements of interest in this study, Ti ,Sr, and Zr, when compared to 213nm-ns laser ablation ICP-MS.