[Determination of rare earth elements in trialkyl phoshine oxide (TRPO)-kerosene by ICP-AES]

The present paper describes the determination of rare earth elements (REEs) in 30% TRPO-kerosene by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) with ethanol as diluent. The relative intensities of REEs vary slowly when the content of 30% TRPO-kerosene varies from 4% to 20%. The relative intensity of Ce increased with the contents of H2O increasing from 1% to 7%, but the other REEs did not vary. No effects on the relative intensities of REEs are seen when the concentration of HNCO3 varies from 0.065 to 0.315 mol x L(-1). The effects of Fe and Zr on the relative intensities of REEs are also investigated. The effects of Fe on the relative intensities of REEs are not obvious, but when the concentration of Zr is ten times larger than REEs, the effects are obvious. The method is applicable when the content of 30% TRPO-kerosene ranges from 4% to 20%, the limits of detection of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm are 0.012, 0.040, 0.029, 0.040 and 0.021 microg x mL(-1) respectively, the RSD% is lower than 2%, and the relative error is lower than 3% when compared with the determination result of digestion. In contrast with digestion, this method is simple and rapid, and can accord with the requests of analysis.