MULTIELEMENT DETERMINATION OF RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS BY LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA-ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY

The rapid determination of rare earth elements (REEs) has been investi gated by an on-line system of high performance liquid chromatography/m ultichannel inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. I n the present system, all REEs could be detected simultaneously in a s ingle chromatographic measurement without spectral interferences. Util izing a cation exchange column and 2-hydroxy-2-methylpropanoic acid aq ueous solution as the mobile phase, the detection limits of 0.4-30 ng ml(-1) for all REEs were obtained. The system was applied to the deter mination of REEs in geological standard rock samples and rare earth im purities in high purity rare earth oxides. The REEs in standard rocks could be determined by the present HPLC/ICP-AES system without pretrea tment after acid digestion, although the detection limits were not suf ficient for the analysis of rare earth oxides.