An investigation was made on the determination of the acid soluble and insoluble aluminum in steel by emission Spectrometry.
With the sample of high insoluble aluminum content the emission signals from each discharge are distributed irregularity and their intensity is extraordinarily strong. The experiment confirmed that the phenomenon, the so-called “abnormal discharge”, originates in the presence of aluminum oxide, etc. in the sample.
In this method, the above mentioned signals were discriminated from those obtained from the element which is in solid solution in the matrix by means of a PDA (Pulse Height Distribution Analyser) and the acid soluble aluminum and insoluble aluminum were determined separately.
The signal distribution obtained was assumed approximately to be an exponential function and the calculated maximum was related to the aluminum content in the sample.
The analytical range of the method are 0.001 to 0.10% for the acid soluble aluminum and 0.001 to 0.010% for the acid insoluble aluminum, the precision (standard deviation) being 0.0006%.
The use of this method makes it possible to determine the acid soluble aluminum even when the content of acid insoluble aluminum is as much as over 0.05%.
