Determination of heavy metal elements in preserved fruits by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with octopole reaction system

An analysis method of microwave digestion and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with octopole reaction system (ORS) was established for the determination of 10 heavy metal elements including Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, Sb, Hg and Pb in preserved fruits.Samples were decomposed by HNO3 and H2O2 followed by dilution with ultrapure water then the above 10 heavy metal elements in the solution were analyzed directly by ICP-MS.The use of ORS could eliminate the interference of polyatomic ions dramatically.Sc, Y, In and Bi as internal standard elements were used to compensate matrix effect and signal drift.The optimum conditions for the determination were tested and discussed.Under the optimal conditions, the detection limits of the 10 elements were in the range of 0.001 ～ 0.039μg/L and the relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 3.24%, which showed that the method was very precise.The technique was applied in the quality control and safety evaluation of preserved fruits.