Chemical Interferences:

The chemical interferences include molecular compound creation, ionisation effects, and solute vaporisation effects. A few of these have already been discussed under spectral and physical interferences. Those effects are normally not very significant in ICP-AES. If present, these can be minimised by carefully controlling the operating conditions such as observation position, incident power, matrix matching, etc.

Memory effects resulting from the presence of the analytes in a previous sample and contributing to the signals measured in a new sample are also an area of concern. These can be minimised through purging the system with a blank in between samples. The purging or the rinsing times necessary for a particular element must be suitably estimated before undertaking the analysis.