Apd. Jorge et al., PLATINUM-GROUP ELEMENTS AND GOLD DETERMINATION NIS FIRE ASSAY BUTTONSBY UV LASER-ABLATION ICP-MS, Geostandards newsletter, 22(1), 1998, pp. 47-55
The direct analysis of nickel sulfide fire assay buttons by UV laser a
blation ICP-MS was used to determine the platinum-group elements and g
old in the following reference materials: UMT-1, WPR-1, WMG-1, GPt-4,
GPt-6 and CHR-Bkg. The instrument was calibrated with buttons prepared
using quartz doped with the appropriate standard solutions. Analytica
l precision (RSD) was generally better than 10%, although occasional h
igher RSDs may infer local heterogeneities within nickel sulfide butto
ns. Good or excellent agreement was observed between analysed and refe
rence material values except Ph in UMT-1 and WMG-1, which suffered an
interference from copper. Detection limits calculated as 10s quantitat
ion limits were Au (1.7 ng g(-1)), Pd (3.3 ng g(-1)), Pt (8.3 ng g(-1)
), Os (1.3 ng g(-1)), Ph (1 ng g(-1)), Ru (5 ng g(-1)) and Ir (0.7 ng
g(-1)).