Determination of Fe, Al and Ni in ZrO2 by electrothermal vaporization ICP-AES

A novel method for the analysis of ZrO2 powder via in-situ separation of the matrix from the analytes is described, based on the use of a polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) emulsion as a chemical modifier. The main affecting factors, including the flow rate of carrier gas and auxiliary carrier gas, ashing temperature and time, matrix concentration, signal record time, and vaporization temperature and time, were investigated systematically. Under the optimum operating conditions, the detection limits (DL) of analytes vary from 4.2 ng(.)mL(-1) (AI) to 11 ng(.)ml(-1)(Fe). The relative standard deviations (RSDs) are 3.1%-4.9%.