[Fluorescence enhancement of the dysprosium-sulfosalicylic acid system by lanthanum and its application]

A fluorescence enhancement produced by adding lanthanum(III) to dysprosium-sulfosalicylic acid system was observed. La3+ enhanced the fluorescence intensity by two orders of magnitude compared with the system without La3+. The system was used for the determination of trace amount of dysprosium in the range of 3.0 x 10(-7)-1.0 x 10(-5) mol/dm3, and the detection limit was 8.0 x 10(-8) mol/dm3. The procedure was applied to the determination of dysprosium in synthetic rare earth samples and standard rare earth samples with satisfactory results.