Interferences in the determination of elements that form volatile hydrides with sodium borohydride using atomic-absorption spectrophotometry and the argon-hydrogen flame

Abstract

A study has been made of the determination of arsenic, bismuth, germanium, antimony, selenium, tin and tellurium by conversion into the hydrides by reaction with sodium borohydride in dilute hydrochloric acid followed by measurement with atomic-absorption spectrophotometry in an argon-hydrogen flame. A general study, involving 48 elements, of interferences has been carried out and it has been shown that significant interference occurs in many instances but that the procedure is simple to carry out and gives a considerable increases in sensitivity and detection limits for the elements listed, with the exception of tin, for which high blank values were obtained owing to the presence of tin in the sodium borohydride reagent.