Determination of silicon in fine gold by solution and solid sample graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Abstract

Four methods are described for determining silicon in fine gold. These include a solid sample electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) method with aqueous calibration standards, an ETAAS solution based method with matrix matched standards, an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method with matrix matched standards and a spark ablation ICP-AES method. The first three methods give comparable results, although the solid sample ETAAS method is more error prone. Results from these techniques were used for the characterization of gold reference materials which were used as calibration standards for determining silicon in gold by spark ablation ICP-AES. In general, limits of detection were 3 µg g–1 or better for the methods presented.