Questions about plasma?

dNot sure how you would actually separate the electrons from the nuclei. In an Inductively coupled plasma analyzer, a sample is inductively heated to the point of ionizing the elements of the sample. But in a plasma, the electrons are still there. Basically it is electro-neutral since each element is still present, just not connected, so to speak. One of the keys of this instrument is the electromagnet that does the inducing. The effect is heat and ionization, but not much else. Anything beyond that and I am speculating.

You can use heat or RF to knock off an electron from Hg vapor. That’s what happens in a fluorescent bulb. Then you can used oppositely charged plates to separate the electrons from the Hg+ ions. If you wanted to use magnets, you would have to put some forward velocity on the plasma and pass it through a magnetic field. Because of the I x B term, the electrons would curve one way and the Hg+ ions would curve the opposite way.