Determination of Boron, Iodine, Tin and Germanium in Geochemical Samples by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

BACKGROUND In the multi-objective method, the analysis of four elements of boron, iodine, tin and germanium involves three supporting methods. Boron and tin were determined by Emission Spectrometry, germanium was determined by Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry, and iodine was determined by Spectrophotometry or Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. The analysis cost is high and the detection efficiency is low. OBJECTIVES To establish an easy, highly efficient and precise, low-cost method for determination of boron, iodine, tin and germanium in geochemical samples by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. METHODS The sample is fused with sodium peroxide to completely decompose the refractory element tin. The molten salt is extracted by water and the internal standard is added, and then the cation exchange resin is used to separate a large amount of sodium salt and most of the cations, ensuring that the salt meets the requirements of mass spectrometry analysis. RESULTS The element detection limits were 0.92μg/g, 0.10μg/g, 0.29μg/g, 0.09μg/g for boron, iodine, tin and germanium, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD, n=12) was smaller than 5%. The method was verified by certified reference materials, and the measured values were consistent with the certified values. CONCLUSIONS The method is suitable for the determination of boron, iodine, tin and germanium in batch geochemical samples.

Keywords

• alkali fusion
• cation resin separation
• inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry
• boron
• iodine
• tin
• germanium