Dinitrogen oxide-acetylene flame atomic absorption spectrometry of hafnium, molybdenum, and vanadium in niobium and niobium-based alloys was studied. The analytical procedure is as follows : Weigh 1 g of a sample and put it into a 100 cm
3 PTFE beaker. Add 5 ml of distilled water and 5 ml of hydrofluoric acid, and then heat the solution on a hot plate, adding 3 ml of nitric acid dropwise. Dilute the solution to 100 cm
3 with distilled water. When hafnium is determined, add 2 g of diammonium titanium hexafluoride {(NH
4)
2- TiF
6} before dilution. Working standard solutions are prepared by adding the stock standard solutions of hafnium, molybdenum, and vanadium into niobium solutions. When hafnium is determined, add 2 g of (NH
4)
2TiF
6 and the alloying elements in amounts corresponding to those in sample solutions into the working standard solutions. The tolerable amounts of hydrofluoric acid were 2.9 M, 2.1 M, and 3.1 M and those of nitric acid were 1.0 M, 1.6 M, and 1.6 M for hafnium, molybdenum, and vanadium, respectively. It was found that (NH
4)
2TiF
6 greatly increased the sensitivity for hafnium determination. Niobium showed minus effect for hafnium and plus effect for molybdenum and vanadium. The atomic absorption of molybdenum and vanadium were not influenced by the presence of 20 % of each alloying element, while the atomic absorption of hafnium was given plus effect by 20 % of zirconium, iron, cobalt, nickel, manganese, chromium or vanadium and minus effect by 20 % tungsten. The analytical values of hafnium, molybdenum, and vanadium in niobium-based alloys by this method showed a good agreement with those by X-ray fluorescence analysis. The lower limits of determination (
S/
N=2) were 0.05, 0.001, and 0.002 % and the relative standard deviation were 3, 1, and 1.5 % for hafnium, molybdenum, and vanadium, respectively.
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