The first and only ICP-OES spectrometer available with a complete set of factory methods

Metallic elements can be present in pharmaceutical products for a number of reasons, occurring as active ingredients, as impurities in raw materials and as contaminants. Some are known for their toxicity, and as such are tightly controlled by regulation. Because of the repetitive dosing involved in most treatment regimes, permitted levels have to take into account the cumulative exposure to toxic elements, driving down the limits of detection required from analytical procedures. In examining materials, the ability to screen for a number of metallic elements at these low levels may be required. On the other hand, in products such as dietary supplements, some elements may be present at relatively high concentrations.

The ideal analytical techniques for the analysis of pharmaceutical products will therefore combine the ability to measure a wide range of elements at trace levels with the wide dynamic range needed to handle higher concentrations. Samples may vary from raw materials, intermediates, process chemicals and solvents to finished products, so analytical techniques must be able to handle a wide range of sample matrices. The US Food and Drug Administration has proposed two new general chapters concerning elemental impurity limits (232) and analytical procedures (233). Chapter 233 suggests two techniques: inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for these analyses. Instruments used will need to be validated and will have to demonstrate compliance with other quality protocols used in the pharmaceutical industry such as US FDA 21 CFR Part 11. The SPECTRO ARCOS and SPECTRO GENESIS represent the state of the art in ICP-OES technology. The results at the end of this paper illustrate their performance and suitability for the analysis of pharmaceuticals.

Huge quantities of waste oil and related wastes are generated each year. Properly collected and processed, these wastes can be a valuable energy source or be refined to produce usable products such as new lubricating oil. However waste oil is usually contaminated, because of its previous use, with water and other liquids, halogens and other elements including heavy metals. In most countries it is regarded as potentially hazardous waste and must be handled, processed and stored accordingly. Its transport, storage and ultimate uses are governed by a variety of direct and indirect national and international legislation and industry standards. A worldwide specialist industry has developed to collect, transport and process waste oil and to market the products derived from it. Elemental analysis is an essential part of the environmental protection and quality control procedures associated with the recycling of waste oil. The two analytical techniques most frequently used for elemental analysis in this industry are Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry and Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES). This paper describes these techniques and how the range of instruments from SPECTRO Analytical Instruments meet the current and future requirements for elemental analysis in the waste oil recycling industry. 

This paper provides an in-depth comparison of these two long-established technologies used in a wide variety of elemental analysis applications. ICP-OES has traditionally come with a considerably higher price tag than AAS, thus many users have felt constrained to consider only AAS instruments. Recently however, price points have shifted as manufacturing efficiencies and other changes now offer the possibility of obtaining an ICP-OES instrument at not much more than the cost of an AAS device. So many users, previously locked into evaluating AAS technology alone, are now considering ICP-OES for their next instrument purchase. This paper explains the reasons why.

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Precious metals require — and reward — careful analysis. But analysts face various difficulties. The scope of precious metals analysis extends from trace levels to 100%. Most of these metals are resistant to dissolution by all but the strongest acids. Some traditional analytical methods like fire assay are time-consuming and demand a high level of skill.

Three modern techniques offer widely used solutions. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) and optical emission spectrometry (OES) can be used without specialist analytical training to rapidly and accurately analyze bullion, jewelry, and alloys. A variation of OES, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), is an ideal tool for the analysis of bulk materials such as ores, and for the determination of trace impurities.

Several instruments available from SPECTRO Analytical Instruments represent the state of the art in these techniques. This paper describes their application to precious metals analysis.