ABSTRACT
The employment of an in-house-made capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrument with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C(4)D) as a simple and inexpensive solution for simultaneous determination of many rare earth elements (REEs) in ore samples from Vietnam, as well as in anti-corrosion coating samples is reported. 14 REEs (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu) were determined using an electrolyte composed of 20mM arginine and 10mM α-hydroxyisobutyric acid adjusted to pH 4.2 with acetic acid. The best detection limit achieved was 0.24mg/L using the developed CE-C(4)D method. Good agreement between results from CE-C(4)D and the confirmation method (ICP-MS) was achieved, with a coefficient of determination (r(2)) for the two pairs of data of 0.998.
Subject(s)
Metals, Rare Earth/analysis , Arginine , Corrosion , Electrolytes , Electrophoresis, Capillary/methods , Extraction and Processing Industry , Hydrogen-Ion Concentration , Hydroxybutyrates , Limit of Detection , VietnamABSTRACT
Several elements (V, Mo, Fe, Mn, Cd, Zn) as metallic impurities in pure uranium compounds were quantitatively determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The effects of uranium and that of other factors on the absorption intensity of each element were studied. The analyzed samples were dissolved in 6 M nitric acid, and uranium was selectively extracted with tributylphosphate. The aqueous solution containing impurities was then evaporated and the obtained moist residues were dissolved in dilute hydrochloride acid or nitric acid. The sample solution was measured with a flame atomic absorption spectrometer under the optimum conditions, such as the maximum wavelength, suitable ratio of acetylene-air or acetylene-nitrogen oxide mixture, and some other parameters of the instrument. The analytical procedure was applied in laboratories belonging to Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission for the determination of these above-mentioned elements in synthesized uranium samples and in purified uranium oxide samples with high precision and accuracy.