DIRECT DETERMINATION OF TRACE-ELEMENTS IN TUNGSTEN PRODUCTS USING AN INDUCTIVELY-COUPLED PLASMA OPTICAL-EMISSION CHARGE-COUPLED-DEVICE DETECTOR SPECTROMETER

An echelle inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer eq uipped with a segmented array of charge coupled device detectors was u sed for the direct determination of trace impurities in tungsten produ cts. No sample preparation was necessary. The multicomponent spectral fitting software provided by the instrument was used for the correctio n of spectral interference and background. The detection limits of the trace elements Al, As, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, P, Pb, Sb, Sn, Ti and V in tungsten matrix were obtained under optimi zed operating conditions. The accuracy of the proposed method was asse ssed using three National Reference Materials. As a result of their ul tra-trace concentrations in the reference materials, As, Pb and Sn cou ld not be determined satisfactorily. The concentrations found for the other elements agreed quite well with those of the certified values of the reference materials. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.