To analyze air filters using ICP we attack them in a microwave in order to put into solution the loaded metal pollutans and then analyze the solution with ICP-OES.

The attack depends of what kind of filters you use to collect pollutans. Usually we attack filters with a high content of Si without HF . Always we attack more than one blank filter to know his metal content. If the filter is a big one we take four or five circles of two inches diameter as samples.