Determination of Some Rare Earth Elements in High Purity Y2O3, Gd2O3 and Dy2O3 by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES)

摘要

A method is described for the determination of four trace rare earth elements in high purity Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/, Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and Dy/sub 2/O/sub 3/ using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Due to the complex spectrum of th e rare earth matrix emitted by plasma excitation a spectrometer with adequate dispersion and resolution is needed to choose suitable lines for trace REs. A combination of a polychromator (Jobin-Yvon, model JY 48 Spectroanalyser) and a scanning monochromator (Jobin-Yvon, model JY 38 - THR 1000) was employed in the present work. The polychromator gave a dispersion of 0.39 nm/mm in the fi rst order and the monochromator employing the Czerny-Turner mounting gave dispersion of 0.26 nm/mm in the first order. A 56 MHz rf generator of the self tuned type was used to produce the argon plasma. Sm, Eu, Gd and Dy in Y/sub 2/O/sub 3/; Y, Sm, Eu and Dy in Gd/sub 2/O/sub 3/ and Y, Sm, Eu and Gd in Dy/sub 2/O/sub 3/ were determined. A detection limit of 50 ppm for each of the RE was obtained. This detection limit is either same or lower than that obtained by XRF and OES - d.c. arc metho ds previously developed in the laboratory. (author). 8 refs., 10 figs., 4 tables. (Atomindex citation 20:040422)