Determination of thallium and 17 other trace elements in the USGS glass reference materials BIR-1G, BHVO-2G and BCR-2G and their application to quantitative Tl concentrations by laser ablation ICPMS

Abstract

Here we present the first determination of thallium (Tl) concentrations in the USGS reference materials BIR-1G, BHVO-2G and BCR-2G measured by solution ICP-MS. The Tl abundances in these three glasses span a range of about 2-230 ng g-1, which is similar to the values published for the respective powder materials. The determined range of Tl concentrations in these three glass reference materials makes them ideal as external references for investigating Tl concentrations in basaltic and andesitic volcanic glasses. We also performed a series of laser ablation ICP-MS measurements on the three samples, which show that this technique is able to determine Tl concentrations in glass samples with concentrations as low as 2 ng g-1.