Determination of Trace Impurities in Silica Sand by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry

Abstract

Determination of trace impurities in silica sand is simplified by the introduction of automated inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP AES). Due to high sensitivity and wide linear concentration range most of the elements are possible to be determined directly using ICP AES in one sample solution. The instrument has been optimized using silica sand matrix considering radio frequency (RF) power, nebulizer pressure, auxiliary flow rate and pump speed. A multielement programme for trace impurity analysis of silica sand has been developed. The accuracy of overall analysis was first estimated by the analysis of three certified reference materials, and good agreement between measured and reference values has been found for all the elements. As the second way of determining accuracy, results obtained from independent analytical techniques ICP AES and AAS have been compared by analyzing real samples.