Analysis of Rare Earth Elements in Water and Sediments

Abstract

AbstractIncreasing consumption and demand on rare earth elements (REEs) in high‐tech devices, petroleum refinery, medical MRI, metallurgy, agriculture fertilizer, and REEs mining have inevitably released noticeable REEs to soils, waters, and food chains, raising environment and health concerns. Determination of REEs in water and sediments is primarily needed for tracing source materials, exploring mineral resources, and identifying environmental pollutions. REE concentrations in natural water are extremely low in the range of sub‐micrograms per liter to nanograms per liter level. To determine the trace REEs, a sample pretreatment including REEs preconcentration and matrix removal is often required. A wide variety of methods have been developed to fulfill this task. The coprecipitation and solid‐phase extraction (SPE) are among the most used approaches for preconcentrating REEs. Various instruments have been employed for measuring REEs. Currently, the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) is the gold standard for trace REEs analysis. This article presents an overview of the analysis of REEs in natural waters and sediments by laying out a practical pathway covering the field sampling, sample pretreatment, REEs instrumentation, and data reduction.