Objective This study was aimed at the accurate determination of heavy metals in water quality by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), so as to improve the analysis accuracy and provide scientific basis for water quality monitoring. Methods The water samples were collected for filtration and acidification. Agilent 7700x was used to detect lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury according to EPA 6020B standard. The power, argon flow rate and sample introduction rate were optimized. Results The single factor analysis of variance showed that the optimized ICP-MS significantly improved the sensitivity and accuracy of heavy metal detection. RSD was less than 5% in repeated experiments, and the recovery rate was 95%~105%. Conclusion This study successfully improved the accuracy of water quality analysis, and the optimization method provided reliable technical support for environmental monitoring.

inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry  /  water quality analysis  /  accuracy  /  experimental analysis