QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF IRON-RICH AND OTHER OXIDE-BASED SAMPLES BY MEANS OF GLOW-DISCHARGE MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Glow discharge mass spectrometry has been applied to the analysis of i ron-rich samples using a Fisons VG9000 mass spectrometer. Various iron ore reference materials were mixed in a 1+7 ratio with either copper or silver powder as a conducting host matrix. Both pin and flat geomet ry electrodes were prepared, Internal repeatability was seldom worse t han 6%, and the external repeatability was typically better than 10% f or the flat electrodes, and only slightly poorer for the pin electrode s, Linear calibration curves with correlation factors of 0.998 or bett er were obtained, Relative sensitivity factors were calculated and use d to evaluate the effects of cooling, sample geometry and conducting h ost matrix, The variation in sensitivity factors for the non-conductin g matrix materials under investigation (iron ores, sinters, firebrick, and bauxite) was usually <25%.