Use of boric acid to improve the microwave-assisted dissolution process to determine fluoride forming elements in steels by flow injection inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The applicability of FI-ICP-MS combined with microwave sample digestion far the simultaneous determination of trace amounts of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu in iron and steel samples was investigated. The use of hydrofluoric acid in the sample dissolution process produced nearly invisible insoluble particles with the REEs, leading to erroneous quantification of these elements. The addition of boric acid, complexing HF, solved this problem. By monitoring the transient signals produced by the FI microsampling system, it was possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the sample dissolution procedure. Severe depressive matrix effects caused by the sample matrix were encountered when the signals were compared with those from HNO3 solutions; in contrast, no effects were observed with the addition of boric acid. A highly alloyed steel, stainless steel certified reference material JK 37 (Sandvik Steel), was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the dissolution procedure and to develop the method. The limits of quantification (LOQ) calculated on the basis of 10 root 2s ranged between 0.008 mu g g(-1) for Lu and 0.040 mu g g(-1) for Nd. The relative standard deviation for all the analytes was better than 3% (n = 4) for concentrations above 10 times the LOQ.