Preliminary characterization of a laboratory-constructed, easily disassembled concentric pneumatic nebulizer for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

A low-cost concentric nebulizer that can be disassembled and reassembled is described. This device uses commercially available fused silica tubing as an inner capillary and a borosilicate glass serological pipet as an outer capillary. The device is readily constructed in <15 min with commercially available components; no specialized skills such as machining, injection molding, or glassworking are required. The easily disassembled concentric nebulizer has been compared to a commercially available glass concentric nebulizer using ICP-MS; similar characteristics for M⁺ and MO⁺ intensities versus nebulizer Ar flow rate were observed. The commercially available glass concentric nebulizer was found to produce higher peak M⁺ signals amounting to 29-58 and 23-29 relative percent difference at liquid introduction rates of 0.27 and 1.08 ml min^-1, respectively; this difference may arise from differences in the inner capillary wall thickness. The easily disassembled nebulizer yielded satisfactory ²³⁸U:²³⁵U measurements with precision limited to ≈0.3% RSD.