Determination of Wear-Metals in Lubricating Oil Using Ultrasonic Nebulization / Membrane Desolvation with ICP-AES Detection

Lubricating oils are essential for the proper function of a wide variety of machines and monitoring the levels of wear metals in lubricating oils from various engine components facilitates proper maintenance of the equipment and can help prevent costly repairs. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) is a widely used technique for parts per billion (ppb) and sub parts per billion detection in a wide variety of sample matrices. However, introduction of organic solvents to an ICP-AES instrument can present a number of problems: plasma instability or failure, elevated background emission, and carbon buildup on the ICP torch and injector. This application note demonstrates the use of the CETAC U6000AT+ Ultrasonic Nebulizer / Membrane Desolvator in stabilizing the plasma operation through removal of most of the diluting organic solvent during analyte transport.