Acid retardation method in analysis of strongly acidic solutions by inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry.

Acid retardation on the sorbents as a technique for reduction of the acidity of the solutions prior to their analysis by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was proposed and investigated. The proposed scheme provides substantial separation of the analytes and nitric acid, which allows direct introduction of the eluates in plasma without dilution. Two sorbents were examined - AV-17 anion-exchange resin and the Stirosorb 584 sorbent. Sorption and desorption of 38 elements on these sorbents were investigated. The efficiencies of the REEs' sorption on the anion-exchange and neutral sorbents were compared. The higher efficiency of the REEs and HNO3 separation was revealed for the neutral Stirosorb 584 sorbent. It was also found that most elements come out quantitatively of the column filled with the AV-17 resin after pumping 2-4mL of the solution. Wherein, the concentration of nitric acid decreased by 20 times. The anomalous behaviour of Ag, Pb, Th and U on the AV-17 resin was found. These analytes were eluted only after pumping 4 column volumes of deionized water. Na, K, Fe, Al and Li in concentrations within (50-1000mgL(-1)) range did not affect the recovery of REEs. The potential of ARM technique was demonstrate by the analysis of puriss. HNO3 and silverware. ARM enables to avoid dilution of highly acidic solutions prior to their introduction in ICP-MS.

Investigation of the new sorption preconcentration systems for determination of noble metals in rocks by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.

The reversible sorption preconcentration of noble metals (NMs) prior to their determination by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was investigated. Six new hypercrosslinked polystyrene sorbents were tested. The dependence of the degree of NMs sorption on the average degree of polymer network crosslinking and pore diameters was investigated. It was found that sorbents HP-100/6, HP-300/6 and HP-500/6 have low efficiency of NMs chlorocomplexes extraction. Among Stirosorb sorbents (Stirosorb-2, Stirosorb-514 and Stirosorb-584) the highest efficiency of the extraction of NMs' chlorocomplexes has Stirosorb-514. Tributylamine (TBA), N-methylbenzylamine (MBA), N,N-dimethylbenzylamine (DMBA), N,N-dibenzylmetylamine (DBMA) were studied as the reagents for extraction of Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt and Au chlorocomplexes from hydrochloric acid solutions in the form of ion associates by reversed-phase mechanism. The reversible quantitative extraction of Ru, Pd, Pt and Au in system Stirosorb-514 - TBA - 1M HCl in ethanol as eluent was achieved. It was found that resulting eluates do not contain matrix components which may cause spectral interferences on the stage of NMs determination by ICP-MS. The found scheme of NMs reversible sorption was validated by the analysis of certified reference materials of basic and ultrabasic rocks GPt-5, GPt-6 and SARM-7. Good agreement between the measured NMs concentrations and the certified values was demonstrated. The achieved limits of detection for Ru, Pd, Pt and Au vary within 10(-8)-10(-7)wt% range.

Specificity of noble metals dynamic sorption preconcentration on reversed-phase sorbents.

The reversible sorption preconcentration of noble metals (NMs) using different schemes "sorbent-reagent-eluent" was investigated. The extraction of Au, Pd, Pt, Ir, Rh and Ru chlorocomplexes from hydrochloric acid solutions on hyper-crosslinked polysterene MN-200 in the form of ion associates with tributylamine (TBA) and 4-(n-octyl)diethylenetriamine (ODETA) was investigated. It was found that Pd, Pt and Au were quantitatively and reversibly extracted using TBA on hyper-crosslinked polysterene; the appropriate eluent for desorption was 1M solution of HCl in ethanol. Ir, Rh and Ru under these conditions were not sorbed quantitatively. It was found that sorbent hydrophobicity is not the main characteristic that defines the efficiency of sorption of a particular NM ion associate. Different efficiencies of hyper-crosslinked polysterene MN-200 for sorption of square-planar chlorcomplexes of Pt, Pd and Au and octahedral complexes of Ir, Rh and Ru were found. For the first time, the sorbents with their own N-atoms - StrataX and StrataX-AW - were used for the sorption of Ir, Rh and Ru. Using these sorbents, the sorption of Ir was increased up to 95%, and the sorption of Ru and Rh was increased to about 40%. We can explain these results by nonspecific interaction of chlorcomplexes of Ir, Rh and Ru with ethylenediamine groups of the sorbent. Weak bases with large anions may be applied for desorption of Ir, Rh and Ru. Two schemes of dynamic sorption preconcentration of NMs from hydrochloric acid solutions were proposed - hyper-crosslinked polysterene MN-200 for the determination of Au, Pd, Pt, and StrataX-AW for Ir, Rh and Ru.

Determination of rare earth elements in rock samples by inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry after sorption preconcentration using Pol-DETATA sorbent.

Sorption preconcentration of rare earth elements prior to introduction in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is developed. For the first time Pol-DETATA sorbent was used for REEs preconcentration after digestion of wide classes of rock samples. The developed technique is based on lithium metaborate fusion, preconcentration on Pol-DETATA sorbent, elution with nitric acid and flow-injection sample introduction to the ICP-MS spectrometer. The efficiency of REEs extraction from the resulting solutions in the presence of high amounts of iron is examined. 5-sulfosalicylic acid was used as a masking reagent. Flow-injection introduction of 50 µL of eluate obtained after desorption was used to avoid corrosion of the parts of the ICP-MS instrument due to high acidity of the eluate. The accuracy of the developed technique is checked by the analysis of the certified reference materials of rock samples. The REEs recoveries within 85-100% interval were attained for most REEs in tested reference materials.

Investigation of the efficiency of the sample pretreatment stage for the determination of the rare earth elements in rock samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry technique.

Different methods of rock sample digestion for final analysis by ICP-MS technique are investigated. It is shown that only basic rocks can be quantitatively digested in a microwave (MW) field with the mixture of HF and HNO(3) acids at 210°C for 60 min. The addition of HCl and H(3)BO(3) provides complete digestion of andesites and some types of granites. Even at maximal temperature in the used MW oven of 210°C syenites, granodiorites and albitized granites are not digested. These types of rocks are not digested in a closed Teflon autoclave for 16 h and can be digested only by fusion with lithium metaborate. The reason for such behavior is discussed. To avoid problems with the introduction of heavily acidic solutions after fusion in ICP the solutions were diluted. To compensate the loss of sensitivity due to the dilution step the REEs (Rare Earth Elements) pre-concentration using aminocarboxylic Pol-DETATA (diethyltriaminetetraacetate) sorbent was tested. The developed scheme is validated by the analysis of a wide range of reference rock materials.

Diode laser differential absorption spectrometry for measurements of some parameters of condensed media.

A method of diode laser differential absorption spectrometry (DLDAS) is proposed. The method is based on the detection of absorption spectra variations caused by the changes of a parameter of a condensed media (temperature, composition of the components of a mixture, pH, etc.). Some simple theoretical background of the proposed technique is presented. The potentialities of the method are demonstrated in the experiments on remote contactless measurement of the temperature of aqueous solutions and measurement of the deviations of the composition of a mixture of dyes from the equilibrium state.

Speciation of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode laser atomic absorption spectrometry.

Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) is a fuel additive that has been marketed for use in unleaded gasoline since December 1995. The widespread use of this additive has been suggested to cause health risks, but limitations in data regarding its degradation products and their toxicity prevent an accurate evaluation. To monitor the organomanganese compounds, it is clearly advantageous to employ low-cost, high-sensitivity, manganese-specific instrumentation to perform speciation. In this work, instrumentation fitting these criteria was obtained by the combination of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode laser atomic absorption spectrometry (DLAAS) and was used to determine MMT, its nonmethylated derivative, cyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (CMT), and inorganic manganese. DLAAS was shown to be a versatile analytical technique for total Mn determination, with a detection limit of 1 ng/mL and a linear dynamic range (LDR) of almost 5 orders of magnitude. Analytical figures of merit for HPLC-DLAAS included a detection limit of 2 ng(as Mn)/mL, a LDR of 3 orders of magnitude, and an analysis time of three minutes. The organometallic compounds are characterized by rapid photolysis in sunlight, and hence, experiments were performed to evaluate whether normal laboratory lighting is suitable for their determination. Our results showed that normal laboratory protocols may be employed except that the organomanganese compounds should be stored away from light except during sample introduction procedures. The ability of the instrumentation to selectively preconcentrate organomanganese compounds while removing inorganic manganese was demonstrated. Sufficient resolution was obtained to determine a 20-fold excess of CMT compared with MMT. The ability of the system to do practical analysis was demonstrated by the accurate determination of MMT in spiked samples of gasoline, human urine, and tap water. These results demonstrate the suitability of HPLC-DLAAS for the speciation of MMT and its derivatives in industrial, toxicological, and environmental samples.

Laser induced atomic fluorescence spectrometry for detection of elemental pollution in the environment.

Recently, laser induced atomic fluorescence spectrometry was successfully applied for the detection of trace elements in environmental objects. Due to the very high sensitivity of the LIF technique, either direct analysis of the environmental samples at and below the pg/g level can be done or the sample pretreatment may be considerably simplified. The results of the LIF analysis recently obtained by groups in the USA, Russia and Italy will be reviewed.

Evaluation of a magnetically coupled microcavity hollow cathode discharge for atomic emission spectroscopy.

A magnetically coupled microcavity hollow cathode discharge device was evaluated for its analytical potential as a boosted atomic emission source. A magnetic field using an electromagnet was applied perpendicular to the axis of the microcavity hollow cathode. The intensity of the atomic emission of copper, aluminum and the ionic emission of magnesium increased with increasing magnetic field until it reached a maximum. A further increase in the field strength did not lead to an enhancement of these emissions. The attainment of the maxima was attributed to the increase in the electron temperature and radial diffusion of the electrons from the center of the microcavity axis. Electron temperatures in the presence of the magnetic field calculated based on the semicorona model were shown to be proportional to the square of the reduced field strength. Further, these maxima were correlated to the energies of the upper levels of the transition studied.