Abstract: The invention provides a nebulizer and spray chamber (3) for producing an aerosol (7) suitable for feeding into the plasma torch of an ICP or MIP emission or mass spectrometer. The aerosol (7) is subjected to rapid radiative heating (26) to evaporate the smaller droplets to dryness and preferably to cause the larger droplets to disintegrate into smaller droplets before they are completely evaporated. Nebulizer/spray chamber combinations according to the invention have higher sample transport efficiency than prior types. Optical and mass ICP and MIP spectrometers incorporating the nebulizer and spray chamber are also disclosed.

Abstract: In the elemental analysis of an analyte present in a sample by optical or mass spectrometry, a nebulizer sprays the liquid sample into a chamber which has a wall transparent to infra-red radiation. Infra-red radiation from a heater external to the chamber is focused on to the droplets of sample as they emerge from the nebulizer, disrupting the droplets into smaller ones and evaporating solvent from them as they pass through the chamber. The thus desolvated sample stream is delivered into a plasma and the reaction accuracy within the plasma is qualified by the spectrometer.