A simple pretreating method was studied for determination of trace elements in pure iron samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) using chromazurol B (CAB) as a separating reagent of iron. A proposed procedure involved the separation of iron-CAB chelate as precipitate by filtration through a membrane filter after adjusting the pH of the sample solution. A surfactant, TritonX-100, was added to the sample solution for solubilization of other metal-CAB chelates. The optimum condition for iron separation was pH 5, 5 cm3 of 0.01 M CAB and 5 cm3 of 1% TritonX-100. In this method, some trace elements such as Mn, Ni, Co, Cu, Mg, Zn, Cd and Tl were determined by ICP-MS using the filtrate. An acceptable result was obtained for certified standard samples with high sensitivity.
