Multielement Determination of Rare Earth Elements in Geochemical Samples by Liquid Chromatography/Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

A system of liquid chromatography combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been applied to the determination of rare earth elements (REEs) in geochemical standard reference samples. In liquid chromatography, a strong ion-exchange resin was employed as a stationary phase and ammonium lactate was used as a mobile phase. Multielement detection by ICP-MS was performed in the peak hopping mode to measure the chromatograms for all REEs at the corresponding mass numbers. REEs in the standard rock sample (GSJ JB-1) and the standard sediment sample (Pond Sediment; NIES No.2) were determined by the present measurement system without any correction of the matrix effect and polyatomic ion interferences.