ABSTRACT
The relatively high abundance of geochemical elements such as Nb, Zr, Y and other elements shows serious interferences in the determination of trace silver in geochemical samples by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry ( ICP-MS) . Thus it will lead to large deviation in the determination of geochemical samples without separation and enrichment. The traditional emission spectrum or graphite furnace atomic absorption method is only single-element analysis to the silver and with bad sample representativeness. In this study, load diphenylthiourea ( DPTU) foam selective enrichment was used for the separation of Au and Ag from other interfering elements in geological samples, and thiourea liberation-ICP-MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of Au and Ag. The samples were first decomposed by 1:1 aqua regia. After addition of 50 mL of water, the samples were adsorbed under oscillation for 30 min at 20℃. The detection limits of the Au and Ag were 0. 02 ng/g and 0. 007μg/g, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of Au and Ag in eight national standard materials.