The alliance of the ICP with MS shows promise of extending the sensitivity and selectivity of MS to elemental analysis of solutions. Some additional areas of research interest for ICP-MS include the following: its use as an element and isotope selective detector for chromatography, flow injection analysis, laser ablation, and other sample introduction techniques; fundamental studies of ionization other basic processes in the ICP; detection of halogens and perhaps other elements as negative ions; and auxiliary ionization of neutral analyte atoms formed from ICP ions that have recombined with electrons during the extraction process. The latter concept is particularly interesting because the present detection limits for ICP-MS are achieved even though only one analyte ion is detected for every 10/sup 5/ or 10/sup 6/ that would be going through the skimmer if no recombination occurred. 42 references, 6 figures, 2 tables.