ICP-MS can quantify elements across the periodic down to levels of parts-per-quadrillion, but also as high as part-per-thousand or even percent levels, due to the extended range of the all-digital detector.

Various industries and sectors use ICP-MS for sample analysis, including:

• Environment – soil, water, waste, recycling
• Food and Agriculture – feed, foodstuffs, beverages and ingredients
• Chemicals and Materials – raw materials, impurities, reagents, finished products
• Oil and Gas – impurities, processing, and organic solvents
• Power and Energy – raw materials and effluents
• Medical and forensic – for toxicology, biomonitoring and materials analysis
• Pharma and Life Sciences – inorganic impurities, cis-platin therapies, or nanoparticle drug delivery systems
• Geology, Mining and Metals – exploration, ore analysis, processing, and speciality metals

Other specialised applications include measurement of metal-organic speciation, 2 (or 3)-D imaging of element distribution at the µm scale, radionuclides analysis, fluorine and fluorinated compounds, analysis proteins via specifically binding metal-tagged antibodies (mass cytometry), and measurement of the size and shape of nanoparticles.