Determination of Al, Ce, La, Nb and Zr in Steel by Using Optical Emission Spectrometry with an Inductively Coupled Plasma

Abstract

Inductively coupled high frequency plasma (ICP) -optical emission spectrometry was used for the determination of some elements in steels. The determined elements were Ce, La, Nb, Zr and Al, and the former four ones cannot be determined by the atomic absorption method.
The plasma was generated by the frequency of 27.120 MHz and the output power of 1600 watt. An 1.7-meter Ebert mounting spectrometer was used. Steel samples were completely dissolved by suitable acids, and diluted to the 0.5 wt% in solution level. The acids and the iron present in the sample solution affected slightly the emission intensity of each measuring element, but these interference effects were prevented by adding to the reference solution of the same amounts of acids and iron as in the sample solution.
The determined values by this method closely agreed with the values by chemical analysis. The measuring time of this method for one sample solution was about 40 seconds. As the standard deviation in the micro amount region, 0.00017% for 0.002% Al sol, 0.00006% for 0.005% La, 0.00035% for 0.006% Ce, 0.00012% for 0.011% Nb and 0.00021% for 0.004% Zr were obtained.