1998 Volume 84 Issue 4 Pages 261-266
Glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS) which has mainly been developed for bulk samples was applied to powder samples. Powders were pressed on a pure In sheet and mounted on a discharge cell for disk-shaped samples. The discharge condition commonly used for bulk samples was employed. The surface contamination was removed by presputtering for 60 minutes. The size of particle and the density of the powder pressed on the In sheet do not affect the ratios of ion currents of analyzed elements to that of the matrix element. The relative sensitivity factors (RSFs) for 21 elements (isotopes) have been determined for Fe-based powders. The RSFs for powders are almost equal to those for Fe-based alloys with disk shape. The relative error of analytical values by GDMS to the chemically analyzed values was about 25% in average for trace elements of concentration less than 10ppm and smaller for elements of the higher concentrations.
