Voltammetry in Determination of Trace Amounts of Lanthanides-A Review

This paper presents an overview of approaches proposed in the scientific literature for the voltammetric determination of rare earth elements (mainly cerium and europium individually, as well as various lanthanides simultaneously) in manifold kinds of samples. The work is divided into chapters describing the most important aspects affecting the sensitivity of the proposed methods: the technique adopted (AdSV, ASV, CSV), complexing agents used, the kind of working electrode (mercury-based, noble metal or carbon electrodes) and the most popular electrode modifiers (e.g., metal film, carbon nanotubes, molecularly imprinted polymers). Analytical parameters of the procedures presented in the paper are collected in tables. The subsequent chapters are devoted to a detailed discussion of potential inorganic and organic interfering factors. The possibilities of simultaneous determination of several lanthanides in one sample and the influence of other lanthanides on the determined rare earth element were also discussed. Finally, the applications of the voltammetric procedures to the determination of rare earth metals in real samples with miscellaneous matrix is described. All analytical results were tabulated in order to compare the analytical suitability of the proposed procedures.