DETERMINATION OF YTTERBIUM IN DIGESTA AND ANIMAL FECES BY ELECTROTHERMAL ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY

A procedure for ytterbium determination in digesta and faeces of anima ls by ETAAS with a transversally heated graphite atomizer and Zeeman-e ffect background correction is described. Up to 2500 mg l(-1) of Na, K , P or Si, 1000 mg l(-1) of Ca or Mg and 500 mg l(-1) of Fe, Cu, Al, Z n or Mn did not interfere significantly with the atomization of 10.0 m u g l(-1) Yb, The characteristic mass was 3.0 pg and a detection limit of 0.15 mu g l(-1) for a 20 mu l sample volume was calculated. Digest a and faeces were dry-ashed in a muffle furnace and the resulting ash was treated with hydrochloric acid, Application of the t-test to the r esults obtained by the proposed procedure and by instrumental neutron activation analysis demonstrated that there was no significant differe nce at the 5% probability level.