Determination of rare earth impurities in high purity europium oxide by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and evaluation of concentration values for europium oxide standard material

Eur. J. Mass Spectrom. 10, 589–598 (2004)
DOI: 10.1255/ejms.667

Determination of rare earth impurities in high purity europium oxide by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and evaluation of concentration values for europium oxide standard material

Anding Zhang^a*, Xiangsheng Liu^b and Wen Zhang^b
^aUniversity of New Mexico, Department of Chemistry, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. E-mail: zhangad@unm.edu
^bBeijing General Research Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals, Beijing 100088, PR China

ABSTRACT:

Direct determinations of 13 rare earth elements (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Yb, Lu and Y) in high purity europium oxide by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) have been reported. The operating parameters of the instrument were optimized and the spectral interferences and the matrix effects were investigated. Using Ga or Rh as the internal standard can eliminate most of the matrix effects. The detection limits (3 σ, n=10, integral time = 1s) are 0.013–0.085 ngmL^–1 and the reproducibility (n=11) is 0.9–3%. The recoveries of spiking samples are 80–108%. Europium oxide standard material was made and its concentration values were evaluated by various techniques from 10 collaborating laboratories. By comparison of the results of ICP-MS with the results of other techniques, we have validated that ICP-MS is an accurate and reliable technique for analysis of ultratrace impurities in high purity rare earth matrix.

Keywords: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, high purity europium oxide, rare earth elements, evaluation of concentration values

You can buy this paper on-line in PDF format; it costs only £11.75. Just click on the BUY on-line button. You can pay on-line through a secure server and get access immediately.