TRACE-ELEMENT ANALYSES OF FERTILIZERS AND SOIL AMENDMENTS BY AXIAL-VIEW INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION SPECTROPHOTOMETRY

The application of fertilizers and other amendments, including urban a nd industrial wastes, to agricultural lands is of some concern due to the possibility of soil pollution by heavy metals and, ultimately, det erioration of the environment. Easy, rapid, and safe analytical proced ures are therefore required to assess the potential hazard of applying these materials to soils. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of axial-view inductively-coupled plasma atomic emissio n (ICP-AES) for the determination of 17 elements of environmental sign ificance in HNO3 and HF digests of selected fertilizers and soil amend ments. Reliable results were obtained for silver (Ag), barium (Ba), be ryllium (Be), cadmium (Cd), and nickel(Ni). The arsenic (As), manganes e (Mn) and vanadium (V) analyses were virtually problem free in sample s containing low to moderate amounts of chromium (Cr), Ni, and titaniu m (Ti). Bismuth (Bi), selenium (Se), and thallium (TI) could not be de termined due to spectral interferences and cobalt (Go), Cr, copper (Cu ), lead (Pb), antimony (Sb), and zinc (Zn) results were of intermediat e quality. Correction of spectral interferences using the multi-compon ent spectral fitting (MSF) technique was only partially useful for Co and Pb and not necessary or beneficial for other analytes. Axial-view ICP-AES is a suitable tool for the routine analyses of trace elements in fertilizers and soil amendments, and its scope could be extended to more analytes provided that more detailed interference studies are ca rried out. The use of the interelement correction technique (IEC), whi ch was not tested in this study, might be helpful in correcting spectr al interferences. The analyte detection limits ranged from <0.7 to 17 mu g L(-1).