What is it about?
Chemical preparation of samples for trace elements’ analysis by ICP-MS is very important factor in achievement of reliable results. The most frequently used sample preparation method for environmental samples is digestion by acids due to ICP-MS limitations. The most reliable acid decomposition of rocks is carried out in bombs. However, the problem of an incomplete rock decomposition by acids in bombs remains, because of the role of individual acids in digestion of the different minerals that constitute the rock is not still entirely clear. In addition, mechanisms of mineral decomposition have not been well studied. In the present work, conditions of bomb digestion stage of rock chemical preparation for trace elements' analysis by ICP-MS are investigated.
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Why is it important?
We have found that the mass concentration of hydrofluoric acid (but not the ratio to other reagents as it is discussed in literature data) in the decomposition mixture controls the process of rock bomb digestion, along with the digestion temperature and the sample’s mineral composition. The hydrofluoric acid source does not matter: whether it is added as a reagent as a product of the reaction between ammonium fluoride and nitric acid.
Perspectives
The work on this article have let me to systematically examine and explain first of all to myself the problems which I encountered during trace elements’ analysis of rocks by ICP MS with. I hope that this article will help readers who are working in this field.
Dr. Olga I Okina
Geological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An Investigation of the Reliability of HF Acid Mixtures in the Bomb Digestion of Silicate Rocks for the Determination of Trace Elements by ICP-MS, Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research, July 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ggr.12124.
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