Determination of microgram amounts of antimony, bismuth, lead and tin in aluminium, iron and nickel-base alloys by non-aqueous atomic-absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

Microgram amounts of antimony, tin, lead and bismuth are extracted quantitatively from a 10 per cent. hydrochloric acid solution of the sample containing 2 per cent. of ascorbic acid and 6 per cent. of potassium iodide, in a single 30-s extraction, into a 5 per cent. solution of trioctylphosphine oxide in 4-methylpentan-2-one. The extract is then nebulised directly into the atomic-absorption burner flame.Use of this technique permits the determination of as little as 0·1 p.p.m. of these metals. The general precision of the proposed method is 5 ± 0·3 p.p.m.