Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial components in many advanced materials for industrial use, as well as consumer electronics. As the properties and prices of REEs are dependent on their purity, it is of great interest to produce rare earth oxides of high purity. High-purity ytterbium oxide (Yb₂O₃) is one such example, used across a wide spectrum of applications including lighting, luminescent materials, laser components, optical fibers, and more. Here, the purity of Yb₂O₃ is crucial to the end-product quality, and therefore, the ability to detect trace impurities using ICP-MS is vitally important.

This work demonstrates the ability of the NexION^® 5000 Multi-Quadrupole ICP-MS to directly measure 14 ultra-trace REE impurities in a high-concentration, high-purity Yb₂O₃ matrix, thanks to the combination of a true-quadrupole Universal Cell, multi-quadrupole technology and the ability to use pure reaction gases to address polyatomic ion interferences.