Quantitative Spectrographic Procedure for Analysis of Miscellaneous Samples. (I) —Investigation of Factors for the Spectrographic Method in General Use—

Abstract

One would meet some difficulties in the application of spectrochemical method for such samples as those which are complicated in chemical form, very little in quantities or very complex in compositions. For analysis of the sample of analytical difficulties as described above, a spectrographic method in general use was studied, with which the major elements and impurities can be simultaneously determined under a fixed analytical condition and a set of standards. Factors investigated in the experiment were buffer, internal standard, and analytical conditions, and also experiments were carried out to find the effects of various chemical forms of samples on the analytical results. As a result, a method suited for routine industrial applications was established and has been used in the authors’ laboratory since 1959. The outline of the method is as follows; One part of a sample (>ca.1 mg) is mixed with ten parts of an internal standard-buffer (C+Na₂CO₃+BeO=1+1+0.01), packed into a cup of electrode (3 mm in dia, and 1 mm in depth), arced in a d.c. arc (10 ampere, 60 sec) and analysed by using Be as an internal standard element. By the method, various components at the range of 0.05∼100% in a sample of organic, inorganic or metallic state, can be rapidly determined, regardless of the chemical form of the component and of various matrices. Especially the method could be applied suitably to analysis of ores and nonmetallic inclusions in metals.