Search

Systematic investigations were carried out into the sorption of rare earth elements (REEs) on carbon nonofibers (CNFs) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). The experimental parameters for preconcentration of REEs, such as pH, sample flow rate and volume, eluent concentration, and interfering ions on preconcentration of REEs have been examined in detail. The studied metal ions can be adsorbed quantitatively on CNFs in a pH range from 2.0 to 5.0, and then eluted completely with 0.5 mol l−1 HNO3. Based on the above facts, a novel method using a microcolumn packed with carbon nanofibers as an adsorption material was developed for the separation and preconcentration of REEs prior to their determination by ICP‐MS. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of light (La), medium (Eu and Gd) and heavy (Yb) rare earth elements in real sample with the recovery more than 90%. In order to validate this method, two certified reference materials of tea leaves (G...

A novel method has been developed for the determination of trace La, Eu and Y in high purity ZrO2 by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ETV-ICP-AES) with 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-benzoyl-5-pyrazone (PMBP) as extractant and chemical modifier. The matrix was quantitatively separated from the selected elements in 6M HNO3 medium by extraction with 0.1M PMBP in chloroform. The vaporization behaviors, effect factors and analytical characteristics of above selected elements were investigated in detail. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits were 8.0, 0.9 and 1.0ng ml−1 for La, Eu and Y with the relative standard deviations of 3.3, 3.4 and 4.0% (n=7, c=0.5 μg ml−1), respectively. The proposed method has been applied to determine trace impurities in ZrO2.