Slurry sampling fluorination assisted electrothermal vaporization-inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry for the direct determination of metal impurities in aluminium oxide ceramic powders

A new analytical procedure for the direct determination of metal impurities (Cr, Cu, Fe and V) in aluminium oxide ceramic powders by slurry sampling f luorination assisted electrothermal vaporization-inductively coupled plasma -atomic emission spectrometry (ETV-ICP-AES) is reported. A polytetrafluoroe thylene (PTFE) emulsion was used as a fluorinating reagent to promote the v aporization of impurity elements in aluminium oxide ceramic powders from th e graphite tube. A vaporization stage with a long ramp time and a short hol d time provided the possibility of temporal analyte-matrix separation. The experimental results indicated that a 10 muL 1% m/v slurry of aluminium oxi de could be destroyed and vaporized completely with 600 mug PTFE under the selected conditions. Two aluminium oxide ceramic powder samples were used w ithout any additional pretreatment. Analytical results obtained by using st andard addition method with aqueous standard solution were checked by compa rison of the results with pneumatic nebulization (PN)-ICP-AES based on the wet-chemical decomposition and analyte-matrix separation. The limits of det ection (LODs) between 0.30 mug g(-1) (Fe) and 0.08 mug g(-1) (Cu) were achi eved, and, the repeatability of measurements was mainly better than 10%.