Simultaneous Determination of 30 Elements Including Silicon in PM_2.5 by Modified Acid Digestion/ICP-MS

Abstract

A method of acid digestion using microwaves and measurement by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was modified for the simultaneous determination of 30 elements including silicon in PM_2.5. In this method, hydrofluoric acid was not removed in order to prevent volatilization losses of silicon in the digested solution. An instrumental measurement was then carried out by hydrofluoric acid resisting ICP-MS. The recoveries of 30 elements ranged from 96.0–110%. The results determined by the modified method for Na, Al, Si, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Rb, Mo, Sb, Ba, La, Ce, Th and Pb agreed well with the certified values of NIES CRM No. 28 and NIST SRM2783; their values of Measured/Certified of NIES CRM No. 28 and NIST SRM2783 were 0.92–1.10 for 24 elements and 0.80–1.21 for 20 elements, respectively. The result showed that this method can be used for the rapid digestion of 30 elements in atmospheric particle matter which would be quite useful for monitoring PM_2.5.