title: [Separation with ion exchange fiber column and determination of La, Nd, Eu and Gd in high purity ytterbium oxide by ICP-AES].
abstract: In the present paper, trace La, Nd, Eu and Gd were separated and enriched with strong acid ion exchange fiber column from high purity Yb2 O3, and then determined by Optima 5 300 DV ICP-AES. The ion exchange fiber's breakthrough capacity for Yb was 134 mg x g(-1). The separation condition using 4.0 g fiber column was that after the test solution (pH = 3.0) was fed into the ion exchange fiber column at 1.0 mL x min(-1), the column was pre--leached by dilute nitric acid (pH = 3.00) of 80 mL at 1.5 mL x min(-1) at first, and then was eluted by 0.01 mol x L(-1) ammonium EDTA (pH = 5.00) at the same flow rate. The results showed that 10 mg Yb could reach the baseline separation with 0.100 microg of the four rare earth impurities, and after 100 mg Yb in feed solution had been separated, only 0.017 1 microg x mL(-1) Yb remained in the impurities enriched effluent. When the concentration of Yb2 O3 is less than 100 microg x mL(-1) (87.8 microg x mL(-1) Yb), the matrix interference from Yb on with determination of La, Nd, Eu and Gd can be neglected. The enrichment factors were 3.68 x 10(5) for La2 O3, 4.20 x 10(5) for Nds O3, 3.82 x 10(5) for Eu2 O3, and 4.01 x 10(5) for Gd2 O3, and the detection limits of the method were 0.005 0, 0.014, 0.001 8 and 0.008 2 pg x mL(-1) for La2 O3, Nd2 O3, Eu2 O3 and Gd2 O3 respectively. The proposed method was applied to the analysis of 99.99% Yb2 O3 with RSD (%, n = 5) of 6.2, 5.9, 7.3 and 2.5 for La2 O3, Nd2 O3, Eu2 O3 and Gd2 O3 respectively, and the average recoveries of standard addition were 94.2%, 107%, 97.8% and 102% for La2 O3, Nd2 O3, Eu2 O3 and Gd2 O3 respectively. The calibration curve did not need matrix matching with Yb, and the analysis period was within 4 hour.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China. gongqi@gxu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ri-Wen
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Xue-Zhen
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu