Abstract: Fundamental aspects regarding the use of time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) as a quantitative tool for the analysis of organic compounds are reported. The following factors are discussed: (1) the use of Poisson's law to correct for dead-time in single-ion data collection; (2) practical considerations concerning the analysis of “real world” samples; and (3) the effect of the etching process on the reproducibility of the intensity ratio (analyte/internal standard) of Ag-cationized species. To evaluate the importance of ...
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