ICP-OES with electrothermal vaporisation (ETV) as a possible tool for direct analysis of various biologic samples

Solid sampling electrothermal vaporization (ETV) inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) enable simple and rapid multielemental analysis of major, minor and trace elements without the need for pre-treatment of solid or liquid samples. By comparison with more common ICP-OES combined with a solution nebulization, the risk of contamination of analysed samples is reduced. The detection limits and the sample quantity needed for analysis via ETV-ICP-OES decrease as a result of the high-efectivity transport of the sample aerosol into the ICP torch. The connection of ETV unit to simultaneous ICP-OES allows us the fast direct and fully automatised analysis of numerous samples. The technique enable usually the combined calibration with home-made or certified solid and aqueous standards. We developed the methodology for tracking the carboran-based candidate-drugs time dependent concentration and for their pharmacokinetic evaluation. The method is based on direct boron or together boron and cobalt contents direct estimation in little amounts of fresh frozen mice tissues (5 – 10 mg of serum, brain or liver). We created also methods for multielement analysis of plant material and for determination of potentionaly harmful elements in insect bodies.\