DIRECT DETERMINATION OF TRACE-METALS IN SOLID SAMPLES BY ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY WITH ELECTROTHERMAL ATOMIZERS .1. INVESTIGATIONS OF HOMOGENEITY FOR LEAD AND ANTIMONY IN METALLURGICAL MATERIALS

A procedure for investigating the distribution of trace elements in metallurgical materials, illustrated for lead and antimony is described. The distribution is estimated by establishing the relative standard deviation for the trace metal content in five independent dissolutions of a certain sample weight, for different amounts of material (2-100 mg). The results obtained for lead in four materials (stainless steel, mild steel, ferromolybdenum and nickel-base alloy) and antimony in mild steel show that the metals are fairly evenly distributed in samples weighing as little as 2 mg. Graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was used for the determinations. © 1979.