Determination of trace amounts of gold and silver in high-purity iron and steel by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry after reductive coprecipitation

Trace amounts of gold and silver in high-purity iron or steel were preconce ntrated by reductive coprecipitation with palladium using ascorbic acid, an d determined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ET-AAS). Bot h gold and silver could be simultaneously separated and sensitively determi ned in 10 metals (aluminum, cobalt, chromium, copper. iron, manganese, moly bdenum, nickel, vanadium and zinc). Comparable values were obtained for gol d and silver in reference materials (low alloy steel, by the proposed metho d and a non-separation method; good agreement was found between the analyti cal values by both methods and the certified values. The proposed method is easy, simple and not dependent on sample composition and content. Moreover , gold and silver in metal samples could be simultaneously separated togeth er with selenium and tellurium. The detection limits for gold and silver (3 sigma) are 0.003 mug g(-1) and 0.002 mug g(-1), respectively.