Effort on calibration of infrared spark ablation of copper with synthetic copper standards

Two types of copper samples, compact certified copper reference materials and calibration samples prepared from liquid doped, pressed copper powders, were studied in terms of accuracy of obtained calibration functions originating from infrared spark ablation. Additionally, corresponding particle size distributions of the aerosols from infrared spark ablation were recorded. It is shown that the differences in quantification results, originating from the two sets of calibration functions, could not mainly be ascribed to different particle size distributions of the two copper sample types. Possible other causes, as different ablation rates, parts of melting and differences of the chemical constitutions of the two sample types were explored.