Issue 6, 2017

Elemental bioimaging by means of LA-ICP-OES: investigation of the calcium, sodium and potassium distribution in tobacco plant stems and leaf petioles

Abstract

Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (LA-ICP-OES) is presented as a valuable tool for elemental bioimaging of alkali and earth alkali elements in plants. Whereas LA-ICP-OES is commonly used for micro analysis of solid samples, laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has advanced to the gold standard for bioimaging. However, especially for easily excitable and ubiquitous elements such as alkali and earth alkali elements, LA-ICP-OES holds some advantages regarding simultaneous detection, costs, contamination, and user-friendliness. This is demonstrated by determining the calcium, sodium and potassium distribution in tobacco plant stem and leaf petiole tissues. A quantification of the calcium contents in a concentration range up to 1000 μg g−1 using matrix-matched standards is presented as well. The method is directly compared to a LA-ICP-MS approach by analyzing parallel slices of the same samples.

Graphical abstract: Elemental bioimaging by means of LA-ICP-OES: investigation of the calcium, sodium and potassium distribution in tobacco plant stems and leaf petioles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jan 2017
Accepted
05 May 2017
First published
05 May 2017

Metallomics, 2017,9, 676-684

Spotlight

Advertisements