ICP-AES Determination of 3 Impurity Elements in Mg-Nd Alloys

ICP-AES was applied to the determination of 3 impurity elements, i.e., Si, Al and Cu, in Mg-Nd alloys. The sample (0.1 g) was dissolved in 10 mL of HCl(1+1) and made up to 100 mL. Aiming to eliminate or avoid the interferences of matrix elements and other co-existing elements, the analytical spectral lines of 251.611, 237.313, 224.700 nm were chosen for determination of the 3 elements respectively. Using 0.1 g pure Mg with addition of Nd standard solution, to an amount near to the content of Nd in the alloy sample, as matrixes, various amounts of standard solutions of Si, Al and Cu were added to give simulated standards and treated in the same way as for the sample and values of spectral intensity were measured. Based on these data, working curves were prepared. Detection limits (3s) of 0.006, 0.002, 0.01 mg·L-1 were obtained for Si, Al and Cu respectively. Precision was tested by analyzing 2 Al-Nd alloys for the 3 elements, all the values of RSD′s (n=6) found were not greater than 3.7%. Recovery was tested by standard addition method, giving values of recovery in the range of 92.0% to 108%.