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Applications of Isotopes in Mass Spectrometry

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Prof. Dr. Richard D. Bowen

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Biosciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Interests: mass spectrometry; reaction mechanism; rearrangements; ion-neutral complexes

Dr. Richard Telford

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Guest Editor

Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Biosciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Interests: mass spectrometry; chromatography; spectroscopy; hyphenated-techniques; analytical chemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mass spectrometry has from its inception proved to be a powerful and versatile technique, with numerous applications covering the entire scientific spectrum ranging from astronomy, through physics, chemistry, forensic science, biology and pharmacy, to medicine. Pioneering advances achieved with mass spectrometry include the discovery of isotopes and the mass defect, both of which are routinely exploited to obtain data that would not be accessible by other means.

Isotopes are utilized in at least three principal ways in mass spectrometry:

(i) Studies of the behavior of isotopically labeled species often reveal details of the mechanism by which ions fragment in the gas phase, thus enhancing the analytical applications of mass spectrometry. A related application is the detection of isotope effects, which provide insight into the rate-limiting step of ionic reactions.

(ii) The synthesis of labeled analogs of key analytes in “isotopic dilution” experiments provides proof of the presence of materials, illicit or otherwise, especially in pharmaceutical, medicinal or forensic settings; it also allows the quantification of these materials.

(iii) Analysis of the isotopic distribution of archaeological artifacts may be exploited to establish their origin, thus revealing trade and migration routes.

Consequently, this Special Issue highlighting the wide-ranging uses of isotopes in mass spectrometry is timely.

Prof. Dr. Richard D. Bowen
Dr. Richard Telford
Guest Editors

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Research

11 pages, 571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In-Depth Method Investigation for Determination of Boron in Silicate Samples Using an Improved Boron–Mannitol Complex Digestion Method by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

by Xijuan Tan, Ruili Zhou, Yonggang Feng and Ting Liang

Molecules 2023, 28(1), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28010441 - 3 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2638

Abstract

In this paper, a boron–mannitol complex wet acid digestion method proposed for the accurate determination of boron in silicate samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was investigated in detail for the first time. With the addition of 50 μL of mannitol (2% wt.) into the mixture of 0.6 mL of concentrated HF and 30 μL of concentrated HNO₃, the 50 mg of silicate sample was effectively decomposed after being heated overnight with optional pre-ultrasonic treatment. Following fluoride formation prevention by 8% HNO₃ (wt.) and fluoride decomposition using 6% HCl (wt.), the samples were fluxed in 2.0 mL of 40% HNO₃ (wt.) for 4 h and aged overnight. By diluting 1000-fold using 2% HNO₃ (wt.) solution, the samples were directly quantified by an ICP-MS, showing boron recoveries of the standard materials including diabase W-2, basalt JB-2a, and rhyolite JR-2 in the range of 95.5–105.5% (n = 5). For this wet acid method, it was found that the contents of boron had no obvious difference under digestion temperatures of 65, 100, and 140 °C. It was also found that the ICP-MS quantification accuracy deteriorated at the mass of ¹¹B when boron content was about 7250 ng yielding positive bias with average recoveries of 115.5–119.8% (n = 5), while the determination results remained unaffected at the mass of ¹⁰B. Furthermore, the digestion efficiency of boron by laboratory high-pressure closed digestion method was assessed. The boron recoveries with samples treated by the high-pressure closed digestion method were found to vary within 49.5–98.0% (n = 5) and even lowered down to 31.1% when skipping pressure relief procedure. The long-term quantification stability study showed that the boron content generally declined in one month for the high-pressure closed digestion method and exhibited no significant changes for the proposed method. By applying such an improved boron–mannitol complex digestion method, the boron concentration in the studied silicate standard materials were accurately determined, providing critical data for further boron isotope analyses and associated geochemical studies. This in-depth method investigation for silicate boron determination demonstrates the feasibility of this boron–mannitol complex strategy under a wide digestion temperature of 65–140 °C, and also sheds light on the extensive applications of boron as a geological tracer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Isotopes in Mass Spectrometry)

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