Determination of trace tellurium in pure silver by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

A new method was established for the determination of trace tellurium in pure silver by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. After the sample was dissolved with nitric acid, a liquid-liquid extraction method was used to separate silver by using tert-dodecanethiol in toluene solution, the aqueous phase was used to determine trace tellurium, the extraction efficiency was above 99.7 %. The instrumental parameters were optimized by orthogonal experimental design. The effects of acidity, extraction solution concentration and the concentration of silver in aqueous phase were discussed, and the optimum extraction conditions were determined. The detection limit of tellurium is 1.0 μg / L and the linear range is 0 - 20 mg / L with correlation coefficient of 0.9998, and relative standard deviation of 0.84 %. The method has been applied to the determination of tellurium in samples with the recoveries from 94.0 % to 98.2 %.