A company specialising in precious metal analysis faced significant challenges with its Inductively Couples Plasma (ICP) system which when sampling complex matrices produced highly inaccurate results. The company aimed to advance upon the industry standard and improve the ICP analysis protocol to reduce the discrepancy between independently verified samples and the ICP unit's readings.
To overcome this, work was involved to improve the process focusing on trialling different mixing sample sizes, acid mixtures, external standards, temperatures higher than the industry recommended levels and intermediate sample dilution strategies. In these trials the company recorded the results of the precious metal levels by the ICP unit and compared this to independently verified lab samples. After these trials they recorded much higher accuracy than the industry standard thus solidifying the R&D activity as a success.
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