REDUCTION OF INTERFERENCES IN THE DETERMINATION OF GERMANIUM BY HYDRIDE GENERATION AND ATOMIC EMISSION-SPECTROMETRY

Effects of interferences and methods for the reduction of interferences in the determination of germanium were studied. Simultaneous signal enhancement and reduction of interference were achieved using l-cysteine, l-cystine, penicillamine and thioglycerol. Amino acids such as glycine and alanine showed some capacity to reduce interferences, but this was both different in mechanism from, and inferior to, the reagents mentioned above. Histidine, on the other hand, proved to be superior to l-cysteine in its ability to reduce interferences from high levels of nickel. Sodium citrate, sodium oxalate, thiourea and thiosemicarbazide also reduced interferences to some extent. Mechanisms are proposed to explain reduction of interferences and enhancement of signals by the thiol-containing compounds and to explain the behaviour of amino acids as interference-reducing reagents. © 1990.