Analytical Sciences

Multielement Determination of Ultratrace Impurities in High Purity Tantalum Metals by Flow Injection/Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Shuji KOZONO*, Hiromu SAKAMOTO*, Ryuma TAKASHI* and Hiroki HARAGUCHI**

*Analysis and Physical Properties Center, Central Research Laboratory, SHOWA DENKO K. K., Ohnodai 1-1-1, Midori, Chiba 267-0056, Japan
**Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-0814, Japan

A rapid and sensitive method for the determination of impurity elements in high purity tantalum metals is proposed. Tantalum metals were digested with nitric acid (HNO3) and hydrofluoric acid (HF). The digested sample solutions were injected into a flow injection system with a cation exchange column. Impurity elements adsorbed were eluted with the mixture of HNO3 and HF, and then the effluent was introduced into an ICP plasma with conventional pneumatic nebuliza-tion. In the present flow injection/ICP-MS system, the detection limits, based on 3 times the standard deviation of the blank, were in the range 0.03 - 6 ng/g for the 16 impurity elements (Li, Na, Mg, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, Rb, Sr, Cd, In, Ba, Tl, Pb, and Bi). (Keywords: Ultratrace impurities, high purity tantalum metals, flow injection, cation exchange column, on-line matrix separation, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry)

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