Yankuang ceshi (Mar 2021)

Simultaneous Determination of 48 Elements in Marine Sediments by ICP-MS with Lithium Metaborate Fusion

  • WANG Jia-han,
  • LI Zheng-he,
  • YANG Feng,
  • YANG Xiu-jiu,
  • HUANG Jin-song

DOI
https://doi.org/10.15898/j.cnki.11-2131/td.202006050085
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 40, no. 2
pp. 306 – 315

Abstract

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BACKGROUND The common analysis methods of marine sediments, such as open digestion or high-pressure closed digestion combined with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) or inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) determination, and pressed powder pellet or fusion tablets combined with XRF determination, have a low efficiency of sample pretreatment and less detectable elements. The disadvantages of incomplete digestion, slow speed and high detection limit contribute to the inefficiency of the method. OBJECTIVES To develop a rapid method for the determination of 48 elements in marine sediments by ICP-MS. METHODS Lithium metaborate was used as a flux to decompose the sample. The obtained sample was leached with 5% nitric acid and determined by ICP-MS. An analytical method for the rapid determination of 48 elements in marine sediments was established. Using the national standard references materials of marine sediment as the high point, the standard working curve was drawn. The amount of flux LiBO2, dilution ratio, analytical isotope and internal standard elements of each element to be measured, instrument measurement mode and interference correction equation of individual elements were determined, an optimal decomposition conditions and measurement conditions were obtained. RESULTS The results showed that the accurate results of P, As, Se, Cd, Hg cannot be obtained due to high temperature loss, yet microwave digestion or other methods could be used for pretreatment to avoid loss before determination. The accurate results of 48 elements may be obtained by this method, the relative standard deviation (RSD) of each element was less than 9.7%. The measured values of the national standard references of marine sediments GBW07333, GBW07314, GBW07335 and GBW07336 were consistent with the certified values. The recoveries of each element in marine sediment samples ranged from 83.6% to 118.6%. CONCLUSIONS This method greatly improves the analysis efficiency, and can analyze more elements, suitable for the analysis of large numbers of samples.

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