Direct analysis of tantalum powders by electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

A direct inductively coupled plasma atomic emission method for the determin ation of Ag, Al, As, Ca, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Ga, K, Li, Mg, Na and Pb in high-p urity tantalum powders has been developed. The electrothermal vaporization technique using a modified longitudinally-heated Grun-ETAAS furnace with sa mple introduction on a platform and an automated sampling workstation provi ded the possibility of in situ analyte-matrix separation, freedom of blank, and applicability to routine analysis. Hard- and software were modified to allow signal recording and data processing independent of the spectrometer software. The extent of spectral interferences by Ta-emission at the analy te wavelengths used was determined and the analyte signals of each sample r un were automatically corrected. Limits of detection ranging from 5 ng/g (A g, Cu) to 250 ng/g (K, Pb) were obtained using optimized furnace and spectr ometer conditions. The method was applied to the analysis of two tantalum s amples and the results for Cu, Fe, K, Mg and Na were compared with those ob tained by liquid and solid-samping ETAAS, showing satisfactory agreement.