Quantitative determination strategies:

In one of the quantitative determination strategies the sample is spiked with several elements that are not present in the sample. This is we add a type of internal standard to the sample. Now the emission spectrum of the spiked sample is then monitored in terms of the relative emission intensities of several lines of the spiking elements to the magnitude of other elements present in the analyte. In this case the vertical axis of the calibration curve is the ratio or the log ratio of the detector signal for the analyte to the detector signal for the spiked element or the internal standard. This can then be used to obtain a reasonably precise and accurate determination of the concentrations of the elements present in the sample.

High sensitivity and large linear range are the strengths of ICP emission spectrometry. The sensitivity in the UV region of the spectrum can be attributed to the high temperature of the plasma which makes it an efficient excitation source and to the fact that in the ultraviolet region, a plasma background is extremely low. As most of the elements have one or more useful emission lines in the ultraviolet region, these can be easily determined as the signal-to-background ratios are very good.