Analysis of cement and cement raw meal by atomic absorption spectrophotometry using a new fusion agent

A new fusion agent is proposed for the analysis of cement and cement raw meal using AAS. In the described method, 0.8 g of the fusion agent, consisting of equal portions of oxalic acid, lithium carbonate and lithium tetraborate, was mixed with 0.2 g of the sample, and the mixture was fused for 10 min at 925 degrees C in a platinum crucilbe. The fusion cake was dissolved with dilute hydrochloric acid (1 + 10) and diluted to 500 ml for the determination of Si, Al, Fe, Ti, Na and K expressed as SiO(2), Al(2)O(3), Fe(2)O(3), TiO(2), Na(2)O, and K(2)O respectively. For the determination of Ca and Mg (expressed as CaO and MgO respectively), 10 ml of the previous sample solution were mixed with 4 ml of 6% (m/v) lanthanum nitrate solution and the solution was diluted to 100 ml. The method was found to have good accuracy and precision. The time required to determine the eight elements was around 80 min for each sample.