Simultaneous determination of arsenic, antimony, bismuth and mercury in geological materials by vapor generation-four-channel non-dispersive atomic fluorescence spectrometry.
Chemical vapor generation (CVG) coupled with non-dispersive atomic fluorescence spectrometry (NDAFS) has been widely used for determination of vapor-forming elements, but most of such works have been focused on single element analysis, and reports dealing with more than three elements simultaneous determination by CVG-NDAFS are rare. In this work, a sensitive and robust analytical procedure for the simultaneous determination of arsenic, antimony, bismuth and mercury in geological materials using vapor generation-four-channel non-dispersive atomic fluorescence spectrometry has been developed. The conditions of instrumentation and vapor generation of arsenic, antimony, bismuth and mercury were optimized. The optimized concentrations of KBH(4) and HCl required for analytes generation were 1.3% (m/v) and 20% (v/v), respectively. The interferences of coexisting ions and mutual hydride interferences were investigated carefully. One thousand milligrams per litre of Fe(3+); 500mgl(-1) of Pb(2+), Zn(2+), Mn(2+); 50mgl(-1) Cu(2+), Ni(2+), Cr(6+), Co(2+); 10mgl(-1) Ag(+) and 5mgl(-1) Au(3+) does not interfere with the determination of As, Sb, Bi and Hg. Associating a dilution of 1:250 (m/v) in the procedure of sample pretreatment, the tolerant concentrations of As, Sb, Bi and Hg in real geological materials are 2500, 1000, 250 and 5000ppm, respectively. Under optimal conditions, the detection limits for As, Sb, Bi and Hg were determined to be 0.068, 0.047, 0.037 and 0.008ngml(-1), respectively. The precisions for seven replicate determinations at the 5ngml(-1) of As, Sb, Bi and 1ngml(-1) of Hg were 0.47, 0.60, 0.97 and 0.93% (R.S.D.), respectively. Sample digestion was carried out on 500mg sample with 3ml HNO(3) and 10ml HCl, followed by addition of thiourea solution for the quantitative reduction of As(V), Sb(V) to As(III), Sb(III). The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of As, Sb, Bi and Hg in a series of certified geological reference materials using simple aqueous standard calibration technique. The results obtained are in good agreement with the certified values.
Li
Zhongxi
Z
The Research Center of Analytical Technique & Instrument, Northwest Geological Research Institute, No. 25 Xiying Road, Xi'an 710054, PR China. lizhongxi8@163.com
Yang
Xiaoming
X
Guo
Yuean
Y
Li
Haitao
H
Feng
Yuhuan
Y