Determination of 17 Elements in Whole Blood by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry with One-Step Acid Dilution

In view of the disadvantages of the classical method (atomic absorption spectrometry), such as cumbersome process, high pollution risk, high sample amount, and time-consuming, the title study was carried out. Dilution solution containing 0.1% (volume fraction) nitric acid, 0.1% (volume fraction) triton and 1% (volume fraction) isopropanol was used for diluting the whole blood sample in one step with minimum sample amount of 50 μL, and the solution obtained was directly analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, with Sc, Rh, In, Tb and Bi as internal standard elements, and the He mode as the collision mode. It was shown that the one-step acid dilution method had a simple process, low pollution risk, and samples with low and high concentration levels did not interfere with each other. The 17 elements in the samples could be detected simultaneously within 45 s. Linear relationships between values of the mass concentration of each target element and mass spectrometry response value ratio were kept in the ranges of 0.05-30 mg·L^-1 (Ca, Mg and Fe) and 0.5-300 μg·L^-1 (Cr, Co, Cd, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, V, Zn, Rb, Sr and Cs), with detection limits (3s) in the range of 0.3 ng·L^-1-0.22 μg·L^-1. Test for accuracy was conducted on the whole blood trace element reference materials of L-1 and L-2, and the determined values were within 95% confidence intervals of the identified values. Tests for intra-day precision (n=10), inter-day precision (n=15) and method comparison were conducted on quality control samples, and RSDs of the determined values were less than 15%, with the absolute values of the relative errors of the determined values using the above method and classical method not more than 11%.