Silver and lanthanum as effective modifiers in trace determination of cadmium in nickel-base alloys by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

Trace cadmium in nickel-base superalloys was determined by a stabilized temperature platform furnace using atomic absorption spectrometry with a deuterium arc background correction system. The volatility of cadmium limits the pyrolysis temperature. This prevents the removal of the interfering alloy matrix at the thermal pretreatment step. Hence, an enormously high background signal has been observed. Chemical modifiers including ammonium citrate, 1-(2-pyridylazo)-naphthol, 4-(2pyridylazo)resorcinol, 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-(diethylamino)-phenol, Triton-X 100, EDTA, potassium nitrate, palladium nitrate, magnesium nitrate, aluminum chloride, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, lanthanum oxide, lanthanum chloride and silver nitrate have been studied. Matrix interferences were effectively reduced by silver and lanthanum. The 100–300°C increase in the pyrolysis temperature effectively reduced the non-specific absorption from the alloy matrix. Interferences from foreign ions were also investigated. The merit of the proposed method was increased by the excellent agreement between the certified and the experimental values of Cd in the standard reference material, IN100, and the recovery obtained (100–104%). The precision of six successive replicate measurements was 4.9% with Ag modifier and 2.5% with La modifier, respectively. The results of analysing Tracealloy B were also satisfactory.