Simultaneous spectrofluorimetric determination of europium, dysprosium, gadolinium and terbium using chemometric methods

A spectrofluorimetric method for the simultaneous determination of dysprosium, europium, gadolinium and terbium in ternary and quaternary mi?ctures by the use of pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid as a chelating agent was developed. The influence of chemical variables affecting the analytical reaction was evaluated. A partial least-squares procedure and PC Quant software were used to assess data obtained from a variable number of calibration solutions and wavelengths. The ensuing method was validated by applying it to the analysis of synthetic ternary (Eu-Dy-Tb) and quaternary mixtures (Eu-Dy-Gd-Tb) over the concentration ranges 60-550 mu g Eu l(-1), 30-400 mu g Dy l(-1) and 30-400 mu g Tb l(-1) in the former, and 20-220 mu g Eu l(-1). 20-235 mu g Dy l(-1), 25-230 mu g Gd l(-1) and 75-230 mu g Tb l(-1) in the latter. The results obtained by using the two quantitation procedures are compared. The relative errors in the determinations were less than 8% in most cases.