Analysis of Re, Au, Pd, Pt and Rh in NIST glass certified reference materials and natural basalt glasses by laser ablation ICP-MS

A new technique for the in situ analysis of Re, Au, Pd, Pt and Rh in natural basalt glass by laser ablation (IA)-ICP-MS is described. The method involves external calibration against NIST SRM 612/613 or 614/615 glass certified reference materials, internal standardisation using Ca, and ablation with a 200 μm wide beam spot and a pulsed laser repetition rate of 50 Hz. Under these conditions, sensitivities for Re, Au, Pd, Pt and Rh analyte ions are ∼ 5000 to 100,000 cps/μg g^-1. This is sufficient to make measurements precise to ∼ 10% at the 2-10 ng g^-1 level, which is well within the range of concentrations expected in many basalts. For LA-ICP-MS calibration and a demonstration of the accuracy of the technique, concentrations of Re, Au, Pd, Pt and Rh in the NIST SRM 610/611 (∼ 1 to 50 μg g ^-1), 612/613 (∼ 1 to 7 μg g^-1), 614/615 (∼ 0.2 to 2 μg g^-1) and 616/617 (∼ 0.004 to 2 μg g^-1) glasses were determined by solution-nebulisation (SN)-ICP-MS. Using the 612/613 or 614/615 glasses as calibration standards, LA-ICP-MS measurements of these elements in the other NIST glasses fell within ∼ 15% of those determined by SN-ICP-MS. Replicate LA-ICP-MS analyses of the 612/613 and 614/615 glasses indicate that, apart from certain anomalous domains, the glasses are homogeneous for Re, Au, Pd, Pt and Rh to better than 3.5%. Two LA-ICP-MS analyses of natural, island-arc basalt glasses exhibit large fractionations of Re, Au and Pd relative to Pt and Rh, compared to the relative abundances in the primitive mantle.