Join our host and Inorganic Ventures Technical Director, Mike Booth, as he sparks insightful conversations with our panel of experts in Bench Boost, your go-to podcast for analytical chemistry enthusiasts. Together, they explore the realm of ICP, sharing tips and tricks and diving deep into all things analytical chemistry.
Send us Fan Mail In part two of our PURE Laboratories collab Mike continues his conversation with Erik Miller and Dave Neville from Pure Laboratories, exploring what it takes to produce five-nine and six-nine purity materials. Learn about contamination control, sample preparation, ICP quality control, laboratory design, and the small details that make a big difference in ultra-trace elemental analysis.
Pure - The Business of High Purity Materials
Send us Fan Mail In this special episode of Bench Boost , the Inorganic Ventures podcast, host Mike Booth sits down with Erik Miller and Will Marble from Pure Laboratories to discuss the growing demand for ultra-high purity materials. They explore challenges surrounding raw material quality, rare earth supply, custom synthesis, and how material purity impacts advanced industries including semiconductors, energy storage, and aerospace.
Container Materials
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost Mike explains why sample container choice can significantly impact elemental analysis results through contamination, adsorption, precipitation, chemical attack, or evaporation. The differences in glass vs common plastics are reviewed in detail, and the episode concludes with a brief discussion on proper cleaning/leaching, and the practice using dedicated containers for ultra-trace work.
CCVs & ICVs
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost Mike explains two key ICP-OES/ICP-MS quality control samples: the Initial Calibration Verification (ICV) and Continuing Calibration Verification (CCV). The ICV is run after calibration and before samples to confirm the calibration worked. The CCV is run periodically during the batch to confirm the calibration remains valid as drift, clogging, cone buildup, washout, or other issues occur. This episode concludes with reviewing how to troubleshoot ICV or CCV failures.
Elevated ICP-OES Backgrounds
Send us Fan Mail This week Mike discusses elevated backgrounds in ICP-OES when analyzing high total dissolved solids (TDS) samples such as brines, digests, excipients, salts, and starting materials. TDS increases free electron density in the plasma, producing Bremsstrahlung (braking) radiation and recombination radiation, which raise a broad continuum background across the spectrum. The elevated background degrades signal-to-noise, increases blank standard deviation, and worsens detection limits, especially for elements with poor ICP-OES sensitivity. Mitigation approaches include dilution, matrix-matched calibration or standard additions when dilution isn’t feasible.
Conductivity Tips and Tricks
Send us Fan Mail Join Mike this week on Bench Boost as he explores the basics of conductivity measurements. We review the theory of how conductivity is dependent on ion concentration, charge, and mobility. He describes how contact probes work, emphasizing the cell constant and how proper probe selection to avoid poor sensitivity or signal saturation. Temperature is highlighted as a major variable, often ~2–3% per °C. Lastly we cover calibration using NIST-traceable KCl standards, and how calibrating near the sample range and controlling errors can lead to accurate and reliable data.
Titrations and USP 541
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost we discuss titration techniques based on USP 541 and the Inorganic Venture's Titration Tips and Tricks guide. Mike explains the difference between equivalence point and observed endpoint and how key performance factors can include using the correct glassware, appropriate techniques, and thorough cleaning of burettes. We also cover the correct way to read a meniscus, and how optimizing sample size can prevent poor replicate agreement and high result variability.
pH and USP 791
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost Mike explains why accurate pH measurement is more complex than it appears, highlighting the effects from temperature, ionic strength, calibration technique, probe condition, and sample chemistry. He reviews pH theory of hydrogen ion activity (not just concentration) and the logarithmic meaning of pH changes, then describes how a pH probe functions as an electrochemical cell. He details temperature impacts on solution pH and electrode response (Nernst slope), notes automatic temperature compensation limits, summarizes USP <791> calibration buffers and allowable uncertainty.
Common Tips for Analyzing Low Concentrations
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost Mike shares practical tips for analyzing pharmaceutical samples at low concentrations for USP 232 elemental impurities, emphasizing that high dilution makes small contamination or carryover issues critical. He advises minimizing contamination through careful container selection (avoiding glass and using acid-leached LDPE or leached polypropylene), and outlines a typical leaching process using dilute nitric acid for seven days. He also stresses using high-purity acids (ppb/ppt grade) and method blanks to monitor impurities. For trace measurements, he recommends tightening calibration ranges with more points near the LOD/LOQ, managing washout by running blanks before/after calibration and throughout batches, using appropriate internal standards to correct drift or suppression, recalibrating about every 20 samples, and understanding signal-to-noise requirements for LOD and LOQ.
The J Value
Send us Fan Mail This week Mike and Ashley explain the J value used in pharmaceutical elemental impurity testing to relate typical ICP concentration units to permitted daily exposure (PDE) limits reported in micrograms per day under USP <232> and ICH Q3D. They describe how J value accounts for both sample dilution factor and maximum daily dose, making results comparable to PDE requirements. They recommend preparing method standards at PDE limits for the relevant administration route and diluting to match the J calculation for method validation.
Pharma Elemental Analysis Overview
Send us Fan Mail This week Mike & Ashley review the standardized methods for elemental impurity analysis in pharmaceuticals: ICH Q3D, USP <232>, and USP <233>. ICH Q3D provides guidelines for testing up to 24 elements and emphasizes risk assessment but not detailed testing calculations; USP <232> sets elemental impurity limits; and USP <233> addresses sample preparation and analysis and relies on ICH Q3D concepts such as “J” concentrations (to be covered next week). They explain risk assessment factors (element, route of administration, intentional addition, and screened materials) and outline element classes. They also discuss sample types (APIs, drug products, excipients) and how early screening can reduce final testing needs.
Tech Support Questions 2
Send us Fan Mail The Inorganic Ventures team members answer more listener questions relevant to trace analysis. They address low mercury recovery at 2 ppb, noting mercury instability in nitric acid, adsorption to plastic, options such as preparing in HCl or stabilizing with ~1 ppm gold. They explain detection limit calculations using calibration data and blank replicates & distinguish instrument vs method detection limits, with suggestions to improve precision and sensitivity via conditions and sample introduction components. For heavy metals in blood studies, they warn of vacutainer/polypropylene contamination and recommend vessel leaching or vessel blank studies. Finally, they describe pH product certification against NIST standards, potential meter entry limitations, and temperature effects on calibration.
Tech Support Questions 1
Send us Fan Mail The Inorganic Ventures team answers listener questions focused on pharmaceutical elemental impurity analysis by ICP-MS. They explain why an indium internal standard becomes unstable in high-pH matrices due to insoluble hydroxide formation and how EDTA complexation can stabilize indium when used for iodine analysis. They discuss mercury washout problems caused by volatility, adsorption to sample introduction surfaces, memory effects, and redox/speciation, and emphasize proper rinse sequencing and the roles of chloride-based rinses and specialty solutions like ICP True Rinse to prevent carryover and failed QC checks. They address poor gold recovery during heated prep due to adsorption, reduction, and volatility. Finally, they advise diluting working standards in matrices that match samples while considering element stability and compatibility in stock matrices.
Troubleshooting Mining Samples Common Causes of Bad Data
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost Mike, Autumn, Micah, and Josh discuss common ICP-OES/ICP-MS issues in mining analyses and how to troubleshoot them by separating sample-prep from instrument root causes. Key sample-prep problems include incomplete digestion of refractory minerals, loss of volatile analytes, spitting, and adsorption/instability during transfers. They review contamination before jumping into issues borne from instrument assays; covering the topics of matrix effects from high TDS & mitigation via dilution, internal standards, matrix matching, and more. They also note how physical effects will impact nebulization or transport efficiency. QC pitfalls with non-matrix-matched standards, internal-standard limitations, and the importance of representative CRMs are discussed before the team provides a structured troubleshooting checklist including blanks, duplicate agreement, spike recovery, dilution linearity, and multi-wavelength/isotope agreement.
How to Validate a New Mining Method for ICP-OES or ICP-MS
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost Mike, Autumn, and Thomas dive deep into validation procedures for ICP-OES and ICP-MS methods. They discuss the importance of planning validation parameters early, understanding sample matrices & analyte levels, and achieving complete dissolution via appropriate digestions. They review the seven key validation parameters of accuracy, precision, detection limits, linearity, selectivity, robustness, and stability. They also outline best quality control practices including analyzing blanks, CCVs, duplicates, spikes, and implementing control charts.
Avoiding Precipitation During Mining Sample Prep
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost the team from Inorganic Ventures discusses avoiding precipitation during sample preparation. They review mining sample challenges including high concentrations of Ca, Fe, Al, & silicates, sulfate-rich matrices forming insoluble sulfates, and rare earth elements requiring a more acidic matrix. Thomas explains how hydrolysis leads to insoluble metal hydroxides and reviews prevention strategies. Liv outlines how to use Ksp and how temperature effects compound solubility. Lastly, Autumn covers alternative ligands, such as EDTA, for higher pH stability.
Collision Reaction Cell ICPMS for Mining Applications
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost on team spotlights mining analysis challenges on ICP-MS due to high total dissolved solids, aggressive digestions, and low-ppb targets requiring interference control. They review ICP-MS interference types, giving examples such as ArO on Fe, and ArCl on As. The team explains how collision cell (helium KED) is used to reduce polyatomics and how reaction cell gases are used for mass-shifting analytes or interferences. Finally, they discuss triple-quad ICP-MS principles for stronger mitigation and share method-planning tips: isotope tables, chloride/oxide checks, survey scans, dilution/argon dilution for TDS, matrix matching (including HCl), calibration choices, and internal standards.
ICP Considerations for Lithium
Send us Fan Mail This week on Bench Boost our team reviews special considerations for measuring lithium by ICP-OES and ICP-MS. They discuss common lithium sample types and preparation guidance. Autumn emphasizes the impact of high total dissolved solids (TDS) and easily ionizable elements (EIEs) causing plasma ionization-balance shifts and signal suppression for some sample types. Additional tips include selecting appropriate internal standards, choosing suitable emission lines, and avoiding error propagation during large dilutions.
Method Detection Limits in Mining: Why MDLs are Higher than You Expect
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Bench Boost our team revisits method detection limits (MDLs) with a focus on why mining applications often produce higher MDLs than expected. Autumn contrasts instrument detection limits with method detection limits, which reflect real sample matrices, interferences, and method variability. Liv explains mining-specific drivers of elevated MDLs, including aggressive sample preparation and impacts from dilution and high total dissolved solids. Mike closes the episode this week by discussing practical ways to improve MDLs.
Axial vs Radial ICP-OES for Mining
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Bench Boost, Mike, Autumn, and Thomas discuss the differences between axial and radial views when using ICP-OES instruments. The focus is on how each view will impact precision, sensitivity, detection limits, and more. Our team compares which view is more prone to background interferences and which better handles complex samples with high concentrations of total dissolved solids. The episode also covers the challenges of analyzing mining samples including common matrix effects and spectral interferences, and provides guidance on when to use each view for optimal accuracy.
