GGR Handbook of Rock and Mineral Analysis Chapter 24 Multiple Collector ICP ‐ MS : Technological Advances in High Pre

This chapter (Multiple Collector ICP‐MS: Technological advances in high precision isotope ratio measurements across the Periodic Table) is a contribution to the Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research Handbook of Rock and Mineral Analysis – an online textbook that is a fully revised and updated edition of A Handbook of Silicate Rock Analysis (P. J. Potts, 1987, Blackie, Glasgow).

Chapter 24 (contributing to Section 4 of the handbook dealing with techniques for age determination and isotope ratio measurement) describes how MC‐ICP‐MS has, since its first commercialisation about three decades ago, become one of the most widely used platforms in Earth sciences and beyond for producing isotope ratio data across much of the periodic table. The success of MC‐ICP‐MS relies on continuing technological developments, which have allowed the measurement of increasingly diverse isotope compositions at ever‐improving precision. In this review article, we describe the fundamentals of the original technology and the developments that continue to render MC‐ICP‐MS cutting edge instrumentation. We outline the strategies for data processing and sample introduction that can be chosen depending on the type of element and isotope measurement that is targeted. We also provide a broad overview of the applications that have followed as the technology became increasingly powerful. These include radiogenic, nucleosynthetic, cosmogenic and stable isotope measurements. Finally, we discuss some of the latest advances in MC‐ICP‐MS technology including collision reaction cell applications and triple isotope measurements that can distinguish different isotope fractionation mechanisms.