Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for Environmental Monitoring and Fingerprinting

This Hot Topic issue of “The Open Chemical and Biomedical Methods Journal” is devoted to applications of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in environmental monitoring and fingerprinting. ICP-MS has become a common method for monitoring environmental quality and processes, and for fingerprinting of natural and anthropogenic pollution sources because of its multi-elemental capability, high sensitivity, low detection limits and capability to measure isotopes. The papers herein span a wide range of interesting applications, from monitoring trace elements in atmospheric particulate matter and biota to fingerprinting sources of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) and historical air pollution to determining the provenance of food supply to improving sample preparation and analysis schemes. As is always the case, knowledge of the fundamentals of the instrument and technique (i.e., ICP-MS) is invaluable to obtain accurate data and avoid many of the pitfalls (e.g., matrix effects, isobaric interferences, instrumental drift) that can lead to poor data quality and misleading information. Thus, another objective of this issue is to show how different researchers effectively use ICP-MS, both solutionand laser-based, for diverse environmental samples and applications.