In recent years, along with the development of metallomics and nanotechnology, the focus target of elemental analysis has been shifted to smaller samples, such as bio cells and nano-particles. Argon-inductively coupled plasma (Ar-ICP) is widely used as an ionization or excitation source for elemental analysis, because of the analytical figures of merit. However, the conventional ICP system consumes a relatively large volume (typically 1 mL min
−1) of sample solutions, and thus is not suitable for the analysis of smaller amounts of samples. Additionally, the determination of a higher ionization potential element, such as halogens, was difficult. In order to overcome these problems, a new sample-introduction system and a new plasma sources have been developed by our group. In this paper, we report an three original devices : (i) a droplet direct injection nebulizer (D-DIN) system in which aqueous solutions are not nebulized, but directly injected into the plasma with just a single droplet or a series of small droplets ; (ii) a multi-gas ICP which can sustain Ar, N
2, CO
2, O
2, He and air plasma at atmospheric pressure ; and (iii) a multi-gas microplasma source that can generate a high-density and high-temperature plasma under atmospheric pressure using various gases.
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