Determination of arsenic in gold by flow injection inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with matrix removal by reductive precipitation

Abstract

Arsenic was determined in gold by flow injection hydride generation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry follow ing a batch mode reductive precipitation removal of the interfering gold matrix. A solution of potassium iodide, L-ascorbic acid, and hydrochloric acid was used as the reluctant. The recovery of gold by precipitation and filtration was 99 ± 3%. The detection limit for arsenic in gold was 55 ng g-1 in the solid. The concentration of arsenic that was determined in the Royal Canadian Mint gold sample FAU-10 was 29.7 µ.g g-1 in the solid; this value was indistinguishable, with 95% confidence, from values determined at the Royal Canadian Mint by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry and by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The standard deviation for four replicate determinations of the arsenic in FAU-10 was 0.972 µ.g g-1 in the solid.

Determination of trace elements in refined gold samples by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

“…2,3 Atomic absorption spectrophotometry with a graphite furnace (ETAAS) or flame (FAAS) was used for the determinations of some elements in pure gold during 1990s. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] In the last few years, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP--AES) 12,13 and especially inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP--MS) [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (laser ablation-ICP-MS) 22 have been extensively applied. Electrochemical techniques were also used for the determination of some trace elements in pure gold, in particular, stripping voltammetry was used for the determination of arsenic(III) and silver.…”